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Giant Otter Case Study

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BACKGROUND AND RATIONALE
A few decades ago the main pressure on populations of giant otter was poaching for the fur industry, but this has decreased favorably, however, now has emerged new anthropogenic pressures, including hunting, usually related to fishermen encounters with otters that could be affecting the effectiveness of their fishing nets; fishermen facing this scenario, tend in many cases to see these predators as competitors for fish resource, stating that these animals are the main causes for the actual reduction of fishing volumes (Guzman, 2005; Gomez & Jorgenson, 1999; Recharte et al, 2008;. Harris et al., 2005; Rosas-Ribeiro et al, 2012). That’s why among the major new threats to populations of P. brasiliensis are both incidental hunting and habitat degradation (Groenendijk, 2015).
The giant otter is the only specie of the genus Pteronura …show more content…

brasiliensis, which is mainly constituted by fish (but not exclusively); Duplaix (1980) and Scheweizer (1992) estimated the consumption rate of fish ranging from 3 to 4 kg fish per day per otter and they denote the wide diversity of fish species consumed by these animals. In Colombia they were able to identify a total of about 62 species of fish consumed by this species in the Orinoco and Amazon (giant otter diet review for Colombia made by Alvarez Leon, 2009). In the Inírida´s Fluvial Star, around 82 of the 476 species of fish recorded for the region (representing 50% of the species of the Orinoco basin) are used by human communities: 62 are extracted by fishermen for trade in ornamental fish and 59 for subsistence consumption (mostly) and for trading in local and regional markets (38 of these 82 species are used as both ornamental and consumption) (Lassus et al, 2009;. RAMSAR, October 15, 2014); of these 82 species of fish extracted for human use (either subsistence or sale) at different volumes and intensities, about 70 could potentially be also consumed by P. brasiliensis (Annex

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