Chapter 6 - River Turtles – They Have Come Back

Abstract

River turtles have been used by humans in Amazonia since millennia. The increasing harvest of nesting females and their eggs have led to the decline of many turtle populations and even to local extinctions in different parts of Amazonia. The yellow-spotted river turtle (Podocnemis unifilis) is one of the most commonly harvested species, and during much of the twentieth century its populations in the Pacaya Samiria area in Peruvian Amazonia were subject to intense harvest. Since the early 1980s, however, river turtles in this area have been the subject of research and increasingly efficient management, carried out by local inhabitants with support from governmental agencies and nongovernmental organizations. The efforts to protect the adults from hunting and particularly the translocation of nests to be incubated safely and the massive release of hatchlings, have led to the recovery of the turtles. The experience of Pacaya Samiria has also been used as a model for similar efforts elsewhere in Peruvian Amazonia.