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The graduate in Biology María Eugenia Echave, a native of San Antonio Oeste, and the doctor in Biology Erika Kubisch, who carry out the program for the Conservation of the Terrestrial Tortoise in Patagonia, will travel to the United States at the end of the month, where they were invited by a scientific team to do a study on the tortoises that inhabit the Arizona desert.
Both scientists have focused field studies in the San Antonio Oeste area, where the Patagonian tortoise was abundant, although it is now a species considered in a vulnerable state.
Yesterday, Echave and Kubisch met with councilors of San Antonio Oeste, who propose to declare the task of social, cultural, scientific and educational interest.
Echave spoke about the tasks that they have been carrying out in their field campaigns since the first months of 2016 and about the risks to which the turtles are exposed: the Pomona-San Antonio channel (they tend to fall into that channel, like other animals) , the routes, tourists and predators like the European wild boar.
The graduate, with an orientation in Zoology, indicated that “the turtle found in this area is a first cousin of those that inhabit the Galapagos and is considered the southernmost population in the world.”
He warned that “it is currently included in the red list as a vulnerable species, although there are many scientists working to have it declared a threatened species.”
He recalled that decades ago, in this region and after a rain, the number of turtles that were seen in the surroundings was notorious, a fact that now ceased to be such due to population growth, the overcrowding of tourism and the illegal trade in fauna. wild.
“There are many more pet turtles in the houses of San Antonio Oeste than we have in the field study,” exemplified Echave, who pointed out that “it is the most pet reptile in the world and is massively marketed.”
He warned that “those who have one, do not return it to the field because that way they put the wild population at risk of contracting diseases.”
Echave told the councilors that the project they are carrying out (which does not have funding from any state or private body) “is to learn more about this species” and for that “we work in an area between 17 and 60 km from here, in search of caves, nests and trails to be able to find the populations ”.
He also said that they have applied electronic devices that carry GPS, gyroscope, accelerometer and temperature sensors to some of them, which “are giving us a lot of information, which we still have to process, in order to understand their behavior much more.”
The biologist affirmed that to preserve this species “a joint work of the inhabitants, the teachers, the officials is necessary” and considered “fundamental education for its care and preservation”.
It was reported that the president of the Deliberative Council, Alicia Paugest, the councilors of the Juntos Somos Río Negro block, Daniel López, Rossana Tomasini, Paola Turri and Matías Rodríguez participated in the exhibition, while Marcela Dodero and Héctor attended the Frente de Todos block. Cayunao.
Source: Deliberative Council Press West San Antonio
Photos: Erika Kubisch, and Facebook
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