Existing Relationship between Morphological Predictors and Home Range Size of the Amazon River Dolphin (Inia spp.) in the Amazon and Orinoco basins?

The evaluation of the relationship between morphological predictors and home range size in aquatics mammals has been a tool used to under- stand the ecological requirements of the species, as well as provide relevant information for the construction of conservation actions and manage-ment of populations and aquatics habitats. We evaluated the relationship between the home range size of 34 Amazon River dolphin individuals (Inia spp.), and three explanatory variables reported in the scientific literature (1) body mass, (2) body length, and (3) sex. Home range sizes were calculated as the univariate kernel density estimates at 95% (K₉₅) for the Inia spp. individuals monitored through satellite telemetry across four rivers of the Amazon basin (Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, and Peru) and five rivers of the Colombian Orinoco basin. Out of three home range predictors evaluated, only the sex predictor showed statistical significance in the Kruskal – Wallis test (p = 0,037).This research also calls attention to the vulnerability of the Inia spp. to human impacts on aquatic landscapes such as the massive construction of dams on a regional scale regulating the flooding pulse and limiting the access of Amazon river dolphins to the different habitat types mainly in the Amazon basin.

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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The datasets used in this study are openly available at [repository link] and the source code is available on GitHub at [GitHub link].

This work did not receive any external funding.