ABSTRACT. – We found 36 nests of Podocnemis erythrocephala in the lower Tapajo´s River in central Amazonia during 3 consecutive nesting seasons, from 2006 to 2009. The species nested from the end of the dry season to the start of the rainy season, nesting far from the water in savanna vegetation. Mean clutch size was 7 eggs (range, 5–11), mean incubation time was 66.8 days (range, 62–87), and hatching success rate was 0.69 (range, 0.27–1.0). Podocnemis erythrocephala is the smallest and least studied species of the family Podocnemididae. Published studies that focused on this species are restricted to the Negro Basin (Castano-Mora et al. 2003; Batistella and Vogt 2008). This turtle is intensely used as a food source and is regularly sold in communities along the Rio Negro (Vogt 2001; Batistella and Vogt 2008) despite Brazilian law forbidding consumption of the native fauna. In the Tapajo´s River basin, there is only limited information on the presence and nesting of this species (Rebeˆlo 1991; Vogt et al. 1991). In this article, we present data on nests of P. erythrocephala in the Tapajo´s River, a clear-water tributary of the Amazon River. |