Herpetologica
Vol. 70, Issue 2 (Jun 2014)
Camila Rudge Ferrara 1,2,3,
Richard C. Vogt 1,2,4,7,
Renata S. Sousa-Lima 5,
Bruno M.R. Tardio 6,
and Virginia Campos Diniz Bernardes 1,3,4
1 Centro de Estudos de Quelônios da
Amazônia, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia, Amazon , Brazil
2 Associação de Ictiólogos e
Herpetólogos da Amazônia—AIHA, Amazonas ,
Brazil
3 Wildlife Conservation Society—Brazil , Manaus , Amazonas , Brazil
4 Coordenação de Biodiversidade,
Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia—INPA, Rua André Araújo, Manaus , Amazonas ,
Brazil
5 Laboratório de Bioacústica,
Departamento de Fisiologia, Centro de Biociências/Universidade Federal do Rio
Grande do Norte, Natal, RN—Brasil and Bioacoustics Research Program, Cornell
Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA
6 Instituto Chico Mendes- ICMBio, Brazil
7 Correspondence:
e-mail, vogt@inpa.gov.br
or richard@pq.cnpq.br
Abstract:
The social behavior of turtles during the nesting season can be
attributed to a series of functions such as reducing predation, increasing
hatchling survivorship, and information exchange between nesting females. However,
the mechanism(s) used to remain in a group during the different phases of
nesting behavior has yet to be explained. The objective of this study is to
document the sounds produced by Giant South American River Turtle, Podocnemis
expansa, during the nesting period, and identify how acoustic mechanisms
might facilitate social behavior and group aggregation during this period.
>From September 2009 to October 2011, the sound repertoire of P. expansa
was identified during the nesting period, which begins with the migration of
the turtles from the flooded forests to the nesting beaches and terminates when
the hatchlings emerge and the females migrate with the hatchlings to the
flooded forests. Sounds were recorded when the turtles were active in different
behavioral patterns (1) migrating; (2) aggregating in front of the nesting
beaches before basking; (3) nesting at night; (4) waiting in the water without
nesting or after they have nested; and (5) waiting for the arrival of the
hatchlings. We observed six types of sound in the recordings of turtles made
during the nesting period. These data indicate that this species is social, and
that sound plays an important role in the synchronization of the activities of
groups during the nesting season.
Accepted: January 7, 2014
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