Hatchings in Brazil’s largest turtle breeding ground down 75%
The Guaporé River Valley, in the Amazon, is one of the largest turtle nurseries in the world and the largest in Brazil. However, the number of hatchlings in it may not exceed 350 thousand by 2024, according to the Chelonians of the Amazon Project. This represents a sharp drop compared to last year, when over 1.4 million births were recorded. Chelonians are a group of reptiles including turtles, tortoises, and terrapins.
The report was released by the Energisa Group, one of the project’s supporters, and is based on recent data from Brazil’s environment authority IBAMA on the number of turtle hatchings in the Guaporé River Valley, in Rondônia state, on the border between Brazil and Bolivia.
Considered drastic, the drop stems from the delay in the animals’ entire reproductive and birth cycles. According to IBAMA and biologists, the phenomenon comes as a result of this year’s extreme weather events, especially the record drought in the North, the smoke from intense fires, the flooding of rivers, and high temperatures. In order to save as many young turtles as possible, a rescue task force has been set up on the river.
The Guaporé river
The Chelonians of Guaporé Project is run by IBAMA and the Quilombola and Ecological Association of the Guaporé Valley (Ecovale), and has the support of the Energisa Group. The initiative has been running for more than 22 years and aims to protect turtles from Brazil’s native fauna. The project also works to conserve some birds (southern lapwings, gulls) and lizards that also use the beaches of the Guaporé river as a spawning ground.
The Guaporé River Valley is one of the largest turtle nurseries in the world and the largest in Brazil, and is formed by seven river beaches within a 30km radius—five river beaches on the Brazilian side and two on the Bolivian side—where Arrau turtles (Podocnemis expansa), yellow-spotted Amazon river turtles (Podocnemis unifilis), and other local species lay their eggs.
In August, September, and October 2024, intense smoke from the fires blanketed the region’s skies. “This smoke disoriented the turtles, either because of the lack of visibility or because of the difficulty in spotting natural predators. As a result, they ended up taking longer than usual to reach the beaches to lay their eggs, causing a delay that had a cascading effect on their reproduction cycle,” said José Carratte, biologist in the project and Energisa Group’s environment supervisor.
César Luiz Guimarães, IBAMA’s superintendent in Rondônia, says this year’s extreme drought has increased the size of the river’s sandbanks and its tributaries. “This has been another aggravating factor for the young turtles that have just been born. As they have to take longer to cross the sandbank to the river, they are more exposed to predators, such as vultures, alligators, and birds, and to the strong heat at this time of year,” Guimarães explained.
In addition, the delay has meant that hatchings have already taken place during the period of heaviest rainfall, which raises river levels rapidly and, as a result, floods and drowns the other tens of hundreds of young that are still trying to emerge from the sands.
The task force rescued nests and as many baby Arrow turtles as possible, accounting for more than 200 thousand hatchlings on Sunday alone. Over the last few days, these teams have been racing against the floodwaters to keep the hatchlings in fences and prevent them from drowning, to ensure they can be released in an orderly and safer manner.
Contacted by Agência Brasil, IBAMA said that the release of the turtles has already begun, with ongoing management and monitoring efforts to mitigate the impacts of climate change.
“These climate changes have caused a phenomenon known as repiquete—sudden variations in river levels. In the case of the Guaporé, beaches that traditionally remained dry during the spawning period were flooded, resulting in a significant surge in offspring mortality. The delay in the start of the spawning period was also observed, impacting the turtles’ reproductive cycle. IBAMA’s team is still in the field, monitoring the hatchings, and updating the numbers on a daily basis,” IBAMA stated.
Chelonians of the Amazon Project
The worrying outlook for the possible extinction of the species encouraged the federal government to set up the Chelonians of the Amazon Project in 1979. The initiative has managed approximately 100 million baby turtles—mainly Arrau turtles, yellow-spotted Amazon river turtles, and six-tubercled Amazon river turtle (Podocnemis sextuberculata).
The results mean that Brazil is recognized as the only country in South America to have significant stocks of recoverable turtles that are viable for sustainable use programs. Part of these achievements should be credited to the communities that have become involved in protection and management plans because they believe in the importance of these animals in their daily lives.
