Notes on the Behaviour of Neotropical River Otter ( Lontra longicaudis ) in Palomino River (La Guajira, Colombia)

摘要

The Neotropical river otter is a semiaquatic mammal that occupies a large geographic distribution. It habitually defecates in conspicuous areas on land; these indirect indicators are the focus of most of the studies that involve them, but little is known about species’ behaviour. In Colombia, the species is considered as Vulnerable and in the Northern area of the country (La Guajira) there are no studies focussed on it. In this paper, observations on L. longicaudis behaviour in the wild were made, as a first approach to it, while occurrence studies were carried out in the area. Observations were made in 2015 during the dry or non-raining season (February), in the middle and lower course of the Palomino River. Five observation sites were established along the river, and the observation method implemented was ad libitum sampling. As a result, a total of 31 different behaviours were recorded, from which immersion, breathing after immersion, superficial swimming and foraging were most frequent at 16%, 15.6%, 12.8%, and 10.7% respectively.