Giant otter diet differs between habitats and from fisheries offtake in a large Neotropical floodplain

Giant otters Pteronura brasiliensis are semiaquatic mammals that mainly eat fish, the abundance of which is affected by seasonal flooding and habitat structure. The piscivorous habits of giant otters lead to negative human perception and conflicts with fisheries. We compared giant otter feeding habi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Journal of mammalogy Vol. 101; no. 6; pp. 1650 - 1659
Main Authors:	Leuchtenberger, Caroline, Rheingantz, Marcelo L., Zucco, Carlos A., Catella, Agostinho C., Magnusson, William E., Mourão, Guilherme
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	US American Society of Mammalogists 01-12-2020 Oxford University Press
Subjects:	conflito entre humano e vida selvagem diet overlap Feature Articles human–wildlife conflict opportunistic predator predador oportunista prey size Pteronura brasiliensis sazonalidade seasonality sobreposição de dieta tamanho da presa sazonalidade opportunistic predator conflito entre humano e vida selvagem prey size sobreposição de dieta predador oportunista tamanho da presa diet overlap human–wildlife conflict seasonality
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Summary:	Giant otters Pteronura brasiliensis are semiaquatic mammals that mainly eat fish, the abundance of which is affected by seasonal flooding and habitat structure. The piscivorous habits of giant otters lead to negative human perception and conflicts with fisheries. We compared giant otter feeding habits between seasons and habitats in the Southern Pantanal, Brazil, by analyzing feces collected between September 2008 and June 2011.We investigated whether habitat and season affected P. brasiliensis diet composition and prey size. We calculated the frequency of occurrence, relative frequency, and overlap of fish species eaten by giant otters and caught by fishermen. The giant otters had a more diverse assemblage of fish prey than the offtake in the fisheries. We did not find strong seasonality in otter diets, but diet composition and prey size differed between rivers and lakes. The giant otter diet had higher overlap with the offtake of sport than with professional fishermen. Although the otters' piscivorous diet often leads to negative perceptions by humans, the low overlap between otter diet and species taken in local fisheries suggests that otters have little effect on the commercial fishery. These results indicate that educational programs could be used to reduce perceived conflict between giant otters and fishermen.
ISSN:	0022-2372 1545-1542
DOI:	10.1093/jmammal/gyaa131