Contribution to the study of the green turtle (chelonia mydas) diet in the South Atlantic, Northeast Brazil
International Journal of Development Research
Contribution to the study of the green turtle (chelonia mydas) diet in the South Atlantic, Northeast Brazil
Received 20th June, 2019; Received in revised form 13th July, 2019; Accepted 17th August, 2019; Published online 30th September, 2019.
Copyright©2019, Midiã da Silva Rodrigues et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
This work presents information about the digestive tract contents of the green turtles (Chelonia mydas) on the southern coast of Pernambuco, Northeast Brazil. Between November 2016 and October 2018, the gastrointestinal tract contents were collected from 44 stranded dead individuals. The diet consisted mainly of red algae (65.90%), especially the species Pterocladiella beachiae, Gelidium lineare (52.72%) and Gelidiella acerosa (47.72%). Some animal items were also found, such as the soft coral Palythoa caribaeroum (first record for this region), the planktonic mollusks Jhantina jhantina and Spirula sp., as well as the sponges Geodia gibberosa and Steletta sp. The contents of the digestive tract showed a strong herbivorous pattern, with indications that green turtles feed mainly on marine macroalgae.
