Caiman survey in Corrientes province, Argentina

PIÑA, C.I.; ADJAD, F.; CIOCAN, H.; LEIVA, P.; FRUTOS, A.; SIMONCINI, M.

Lake Charles - Louisiana

Congreso; 23rd Working Meeting of the Crocodile Specialist Group (CSG/SSC/IUCN); 2014

Crocodile Specialist Group (CSG/SSC/IUCN)

Programs using wildlife should have a monitoring system so if necessary correction action could be done in order to maintain sustainability. In Argentina ranching programs need to have a monitoring of the populations under management, in this work we present monitoring results of Corrientes populations since 2008 until 2013. Surveys were done in places were YACARE PORA harvests caiman nests, inside IBERA RESERVE, and in private land were no management occurs. We used the highest relative density (RD) of every place for a certain year in order to calculate mean RD for every one of the three management options described. We did not find any clear trend for po pulations, besides that RD seem to change in a regional scale producing peaks for every management option in the same years. IBERA RESERVE populations show the highest variation in RD over time, possibly related to the high surface of floating vegetation i n the area. Nest harvesting and reintroduction of yearlings is not affecting population trend.