Home Range and Habitat Selection of the Endangered Euphrates Softshell Turtle Rafetus euphraticus in a Fragmented Habitat in Southwestern Iran - via Herp Digest

1. 4,*HANYEH GHAFFARI

2,4,, FLORA IHLOW

3,, MICHAEL V. PLUMMER

1, MAHMOOD KARAMI

1, NEMATOLLAH KHORASANI

1, BARBOD SAFAEI-MAHROO

2, AND DENNIS RODDER

1Department of Environmental Science, Graduate School of the Environment and Energy, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad

University, Tehran, Iran [ghaffari.hanyeh@gmail.com; mkarami@ut.ac.ir; khorasan@ut.ac.ir; barbodsafaei@gmail.com];

2Herpetological Department, Zoologisches Forschungsmuseum Alexander Koenig (ZFMK), Adenauerallee 160, 53113, Bonn, Germany

[F.Ihlow@ZFMK.de; D.Roedder@zfmk.de];

3Department of Biology, Harding University, Searcy, Arkansas 72149 USA [plummer@harding.edu];

4The first two authors contributed equally to this article

*Corresponding author

 ABSTRACT . – We present information on movement patterns and habitat selection of the endangered Euphrates softshell turtle Rafetus euphraticus  (Daudin 1802) from Karkheh Regulating Dam Lake in southwestern Iran. Twelve adult turtles were trapped, fitted with radio-tracking transmitters, and relocated 21 to 51 times between May 2011 and July 2012. The mean linear range size was 2.54 ±  0.83 km, the mean river channel area was 55.35 ±  17.98 ha, the mean minimum convex polygon (MCP) size was 47.49 ±  23.36 ha, and the mean 95%  kernel

density estimator (KDE 95% ) measured 21.75 ±  9.44 ha with a core area (KDE 50% ) of 5.74 ±  2.87 ha. Range overlap was generally high; on average, individual MCPs overlapped with those of 7.5 other turtles, individual KDEs with those of 7.3 other turtles, and core areas with those of 5.5 other turtles. Selection of habitat types was not proportional to availability. Study animals preferred shallow-water edge habitats covered with Phragmites australis  over all other habitat types.