A planned shipping waterway on the Tapajós River, a major tributary of the Amazon, may disrupt the sophisticated social communication systems used by the Amazon river turtle (Podocnemis expansa), a species likely to be endangered.Underwater noise from barges risks drowning out the vocalizations used by adult females to guide their young during collective migration in the species’ second-most important nesting area, scientists say.The waterway is a central piece of Brazil’s new push to ease the transport of soybean and corn for export.
It’s just a sweet, squeaky sound, like that of a rubber duck. For scientists, however, it could have various meanings, ranging from “Time to spawn!” to “Come on, little ones!” to “Time to migrate!” Researchers studying the Amazon river turtle (Podocnemis expansa), South America’s largest turtle, found that hatchlings begin communicating even before birth, probably to agree on the best time to break out of the eggs and burrow up from the sand to the beach.
“The Amazon turtle is one of the most social species of turtles in the world,” Camila Rudge Ferrara, the researcher who first proved the turtle’s communication skills, told Mongabay. “They migrate in groups, lay eggs in groups, and hatch in groups,” added the coordinator of the Chelonian Conservation Program in the nonprofit Wildlife Conservation Society in Brazil (WCS Brasil).
