Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Pelusios castaneus (Schweigger 1812) – West African Mud Turtle, Swamp Terrapin.

2016; Linguagem: Inglês

10.3854/crm.5.095.castaneus.v1.2016

1088-7105

Roger Bour, Luca Luiselli, Fabio Petrozzi, Gabriel Hoinsoudé Segniagbeto, Laurent Chirio,

Bat Biology and Ecology Studies

The West African Mud Turtle, Pelusios castaneus (Family Pelomedusidae), is an aquatic turtle of moderate size (carapace length to ca. 250-285 mm) indigenous primarily to savannah environments, but widely tolerant in terms of habitat requirements, and also able to penetrate into some forest and mangrove zones.It has rather variable coloration, but is recognizable by the pattern of fine, sinuous vermiculations on the head and the light plastron, unmarked except for angular figures around its periphery that may be either distinct or contiguous.In addition, the narrow, elliptical intergular scute and the very short pectorals are characteristic.Its field ecology has been studied extensively and quantitatively only in southern Nigeria, with such disparate features as home range, habitat selection, and food habits being analyzed.The species is omnivorous (but primarily carnivorous), with dietary composition shifting by season and by site, and also in relation to site pollution.The adult sex ratio is even.The species may potentially be a competitor of P. niger in the forest water bodies of southern Nigeria, and especially in the oil-polluted areas, due to an increased niche similarity between these species along the spatial and food niche axes.Pelusios castaneus is locally abundant, and its populations appear to be stable.distRiBution.-Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo (DRC), Congo (ROC), Equatorial Guinea (?), Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali (?), Niger, Nigeria, São Tomé and Príncipe (probable historic introduction), Senegal, Seychelles (extirpated; possible historic introduction), Sierra Leone, Togo.The species has a substantial but apparently disjunct distribution with three separate populations in western Africa, extending from Senegal to Angola.synonymy.