Population demography of Oldham's leaf turtle () in protected and disturbed habitats in Thailand.

Clicks: 395
ID: 107207
2019
Article Quality & Performance Metrics
Overall Quality
Not rated
Combines reader engagement with the AI quality analysis. This article has not been analysed, so there is no overall score — reader engagement is measured and shown alongside.
AI Quality Assessment
Not analyzed
Readership in this journal
Emerging

Ranked #18 of 189 articles by views in PeerJ

Most read Least read

Bar heights use a square-root scale. Only the 120 most-read articles are drawn; the journal has 189 in total.

Mint this article as an NFT
Not yet minted

Create a permanent, verifiable on-chain record of this article on the Scimatic Network. The NFT is held in your Journament account, and you can withdraw it to your own wallet at any time.

5 SUSD one-off · no wallet required
Sign in to mint
Abstract
Freshwater turtle populations are vulnerable to a range of human activities because of particular life history attributes, and anthropogenic impacts can cause shifts in demographic traits, including survival, density and population structure. Asian freshwater turtles have undergone dramatic population declines in recent decades principally because of collection for food, pet, and traditional medicine markets. Despite this, few studies have been conducted on the population demography of these turtles, thereby limiting our understanding of population trends and the development of conservation actions. Oldham's leaf turtle () is one of the most commonly traded turtles in Asian markets, but previous published studies have focused solely on systematics.We conducted a mark-recapture study of at three sites in northeastern Thailand-a protected stream, a degraded stream, and human-constructed ponds-and evaluated differences in survival, density, population structure, and sexual dimorphism among sites.We captured 77 turtles at the protected stream, 67 at the constructed ponds, and two in the degraded stream. Survival was 12% lower and density was 35% lower in the constructed ponds than in the protected stream. Size class structure was skewed toward smaller individuals at the constructed ponds, and both sites exhibited subadult-skewed age class structure. Sex ratios were not statistically different than 1:1 at either site and did not differ between sites. We did not document sexual dimorphism in either population.Explanations for lower survival, lower densities, and skewed size class structure at the constructed ponds include collection for consumption or Buddhist prayer release locally, collection for illegal export from Thailand, predation by domestic dogs associated with humans living nearby, or lower habitat quality. Evidence from our study suggests that collection, either for local use or export, is the most likely explanation for differences in demographic characteristics between the two sites. The information gained from this study may contribute to a status assessment for and development of conservation actions should they become necessary to protect populations in Thailand.
Reference Key
seateun2019populationpeerj Use this key to autocite in the manuscript while using SciMatic Manuscript Manager or Thesis Manager
Authors Seateun, Sengvilay;Karraker, Nancy E;Stuart, Bryan L;Aowphol, Anchalee;
Journal PeerJ
Year 2019
DOI
10.7717/peerj.7196
URL
Keywords
survival rate thailand population size sexual dimorphism demography morphometrics cyclemys disturbed habitat turtles

Citations

No citations found. To add a citation, contact the admin at info@scimatic.org

Comments

No comments yet. Be the first to comment on this article.