Journal
DIVERSITY-BASEL
Volume 11, Issue 5, Pages -Publisher
MDPI
DOI: 10.3390/d11050078
Keywords
Podocnemis unifilis; weather conditions; moon phase; reproductive timing; social facilitation
Categories
Funding
- Wildlife Conservation Society
- Sustainable Aquatic Resources Center
- Saint Louis Zoo
- Jersey Zoo
- Organization of Tropical Studies
- International Center for Tropical Ecology
- Scott Neotropical Fund
- Graduate School-Dissertation Fellowship of the University of Missouri St Louis
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Timing of nesting affects fitness of oviparous animals living in seasonal environments, and females may cue on environmental factors for their nesting behavior, but these relationships are understudied in tropical turtles. Here, the timing and synchrony of egg-laying relative to environmental factors were examined in the South American freshwater turtle Podocnemis unifilis on 11 nesting beaches during three nesting seasons. Daily measurements included number of nests laid, rainfall, river level, air temperature, and the phase of the lunar cycle (full moon, last quarter, new moon and first quarter). Results confirmed that P. unifilis nested at night and revealed that females in our population nest in groups from 2 to 17 females at a time. Nesting was not correlated with rainfall, but a significant relationship was found with river level, such that nesting started at the onset of the dry season when river levels dropped and nesting grounds emerged. Importantly, we found that (1) nesting events concentrated on days with intermediate daily maximum air temperature (although maxima changed annually), and that (2) larger groups of females nested around full moon, suggesting the reliance on visual cues to initiate nesting activities (consistent with social facilitation behavior). Altogether, the timing of nesting in P. unifilis may be shaped by a combination of environmental factors, moon phase and social facilitation, where visual cues play an important role.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available