Influência das matrizes de Podocnemis expansa (Schweigger, 1812) e da temperatura de incubação na reprodução em cativeiro nos municípios de Iranduba e Manacapuru, Amazonas.

Abstract

The creation of chelonians is an important tool for the strategies of conservation of chelonians in the Amazon, with that the reproductive success in the captive breeding is essential. As the turtle (Podocnemis expansa) and tracajá (Podocnemis unifilis) are the most important species in trade and local subsistence (SMITH, 1979). The present work aims to obtain information on the influence of P. expansa matrices, weight and size, on the characteristics of nests and pups, and the influence of temperature and incubation period on the sexual ratio of P. expansa nests . Data collection was carried out in two commercial turtle breeders located in the municipality of Iranduba and Manacapuru / AM, where the spawning period was monitored. Data were collected on nest dates, nest depths and width, nest distance (trawl size and paw width), characteristic of hatching (rate and hatching, biometry and sexing of the pups) and the collected data of climatic data by means of Data Logger placed within the selected nests. Pearson correlation analyzes were performed to verify if the characteristics of the matrices influence the nests (number of eggs, egg weight and size, egg mass, width and depth of nests) and pups (initial pups size and weight, pups, hatching rate, incubation period). Among the variables that had the highest correlation index (Pearson correlation> 0.50 and p value <0.05), linear regressions were applied to evaluate the significance index of the correlations found. The size of females influences the performance of pups production, so it is important to select large matrices since they are as observed in nature. Large-sized eggs produce larger and heavier pups, and the number of eggs directly influenced the total mass of the nest. The average temperature of incubation influences with a positive relation the size and weight of the pups.