Vol. 2 No. 2 (2010), SECTION B: LIFE SCIENCES
Vol. 2 No. 2 (2010)

Status of the Amazonian manatee (Trichechus inunguis) in the Cuyabeno Reserve, Ecuador

SECTION B: LIFE SCIENCES
Published 2010-06-01
Judith Denkinger
Universidad San Francisco de Quito
Portada Avances en Ciencias e Ingenierías Volumen 2 - Número 2 2010
PDF (Spanish)

Keywords

Amazonian manatee
Trichechus inunguis
status
Cuyabeno Reserve
Ecuador

How to Cite

Denkinger, J. (2010). Status of the Amazonian manatee (Trichechus inunguis) in the Cuyabeno Reserve, Ecuador. ACI Avances En Ciencias E Ingenierías, 2(2). https://doi.org/10.18272/aci.v2i2.29
ACM ACS APA ABNT Chicago Harvard IEEE MLA Turabian Vancouver

Download Citation

Endnote/Zotero/Mendeley (RIS) BibTeX
Crossref
Scopus
Google Scholar
Europe PMC

Abstract

Amazonian manatees live in black water rivers and lakes in the Amazon basin. A study of Amazonian manatees in the Cuyabeno Reserve conducted by Timm et al. [1] in 1983 gave first information on distribution of manatees in the Cuyabeno Reserve and they sug­gested a possible extinction of the Amazonian Manatee in the following decade. Here I present results of observations, and interviews, realized 13 years after the first study as complementary observations during a research project on Amazon River dolphins (Inia geoffrensis) from 1996 to 1999. We surveyed during more than 127 days covering about 6.175km in manatee habitat with more than 456 hours continuously observing black water rivers and lagoons and we carried out manatee surveys paddling in the Lagunas Grandes de Cuyabeno. Interviews with tour guides, park rangers and native Indians give a complete sighting list for the presence of manatees and insight into the current situation in the Re­serve. The relative abundance of manatees in the Cuyabeno River is 0.01 animals/h effort and even less in the Lagartococha River with 0.007 animals/h effort. Populations in the Lagartococha River seem to be severely reduced. Hunting in both rivers continued despite legal protection with 16 manatees killed from 1995 to 1998. Overall 40 to 49 animals were seen in the Cuyabeno Reserve from 1996 to 1998. Even though, predictions that manatees would be extinct by 1993 were not fulfilled, they are rare in the Reserve and living in a protected area does not necessarily safeguard this species.

PDF (Spanish)

References

Timm, R., Albuja, L., and Clausson, B. 1986. "Ecology, distribution, harvest and conservation of the amazonian manatee TrichechusInunguis inEcuador."Biotropica. 2, 150-156.

Colores, F., Colares, F., Rosas, F., and Colares, E. 1990. "Amazonian manatee (Trichechus inunguis): A 15 year long-term study." Proceedings American Association of Zoo Veterinarians.

Best, R. 1983. "Apparent dry-season fasting in amazonian manatees (mammalia: sirenia)." Biotropica. 15, 61-64.

Rosas, F. 1994. "Biology, conservation and status of the amazonian manatee Trichechus Inunguis" Mammal Rev. 24, 49-59.

Reeves, R.,Leatherwood, S., Jefferson, T., Curry, B., and Henningsen, T. 1996. "Amazonian manatees, Trichechus inunguis, in Perú: Distribution, exploitation and conservation status." Interciencia. 6, 246-254.

Junk, W. and daSilva, V 1997. "Mammals, reptiles and amphibians." Ecological Studies. 409-413.

Best, R. 1984. "The aquatic mammals and reptiles of the Amazon." Unknown Journal. 371-412.

Grimwood, I. 1968. "Endangered mammals in Perú." Oryx 9. 411-421.

Pinedo-Vasquez, M. 1988. "The river people ofmaynas." Technical report. Univ. of California Press, Berkeley.

Best, R. 1982. "Seasonal breeding in the amazonian manatee, Trichechus inunguis (mammalia: sirenia)."Biotropica. 14, 76-78.

Tirira, D., Utreras, V, and Denkinger, J. 2001. "Manatí Amazónico (Trichechus Inunguis)" Libro rojo de los mamíferos del Ecuador. SIMBIOE EcoCiencia Ministerio de Ambiente UICN. Serie Libros rojos de Ecuador, Publicación especial sobre los mamíferos del Ecuador 4. Quito. 124-125.

Denkinger, J. 2001. "Demographic studies of the amazon river Dolphin (Inia Geoffrensis) in the Cuyabeno Reserve, Ecuador" PhD thesis University of Bielefeld, Germany2001.

Reynolds, J. 1981. "Behaviour in the west indian manatee with emphasis on feeding and diving."Florida Scientist. 1,233-242.

Timm, R., Albuja, L., and Clausson, B. 1989. "Siona hunting techniques for the larger aquatic vertebrates in amazonian Ecuador." Studies on Neotropical Fauna. 24, 1-7.

Cantanhede, A., Silva, V D., Farias, I., Hrbek, T., Laz-zarini, S., and Alves-Gomes, J. 2005. "Phylogeography and population genetics of the endangered amazonian manatee, Trichechus inunguis Natterer, 1883 (mammalia, Sirenia)."Molecular Ecology. 14, 401-413.

Copyright notice

Authors who publish in the journal ACI Avances en Ciencias e Ingenierías accept the following terms:

  1. The authors will retain their copyright and guarantee the journal the right of first publication of their work, which will be simultaneously subject to the Creative Commons Attribution License that allows third parties to share the work provided that its author and its first publication in this journal is indicated.
  2. Authors may adopt other non-exclusive license agreements for the distribution of the published version of the work, thereby being able to publish it in a monographic volume or reproduce it in other ways, provided that the initial publication in this journal is indicated.
  3. Authors are permitted and advised to disseminate their work over the Internet:
    1. Before submission to the journal, authors can deposit the manuscript in pre-publication files/repositories (preprint servers/repositories), including arXiv, bioRxiv, figshare, PeerJ Preprints, SSRN, and others, which can produce interesting exchanges and increase citations of the published work (see The effect of open access).
    2. After submission, it is recommended that authors deposit their article in their institutional repository, personal website, or scientific social network (such as Zenodo, ResearchGate or edu).