How to Trap Turtles in Aquatic Environments from the Argentine Pampas Region? An Easy, Cheap and Plastic Method with Calibrate Sample Efforts

SEMEÑIUK MB; ALCALDE L; SÁNCHEZ R M; CASSANO MJ

South American Journal of herpetology

Sociedad brasilera de Herpetología

Año: 2017 vol. 12 p. 107 - 116

1808-9798

. The present work describes a novel method (trot line without hooks) to trap freshwater turtles on aquatic environments from the Pampas region on southern South America. We analyzed the cost, functioning, effectiveness, biases, maintenance, and constraints of the trot line without hooks in relation to other three methods (two variants of funnel traps and a trawl net) of common use in studies dealing with freshwater turtle ecology. Field works were made between 2005 and 2015 in streams that drainage the northeast of Buenos Aires province (Argentina). The method that most turtles caught was the cow-baited one-mouthed funnel trap with drive fences. It was nearly followed by the trot line without hooks, whereas the other two methods explained a small portion of captures. Our analysis indicated the best method to trap turtles on the region was the trot line without hooks. It is plastic, adapts to a wide array of environmental conditions, not injury the turtles, is easy to construct and carry, requires little maintenance, and its materials are cheaper and more durable than those of the other methods. In addition, we provided a calibration for the trot line in order to minimize the effort and maximize the captures: in cost/benefit terms the best result was achieved employing 1 bait/1.5 meter of shoreline.