11. Lontra Longicaudis Red List 2020
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Lontra longicaudis - (Olfers, 1818) ANIMALIA - CHORDATA - MAMMALIA - CARNIVORA - MUSTELIDAE - Lontra - longicaudis Common Names: Neotropical Otter (English), Gato de Agua (Spanish; Castilian), La Plata Otter (English), Lobito de Río (Spanish; Castilian), Lobito del Plata (Spanish; Castilian), Long-tailed Otter (English), Loutre d'Amérique Du Sud (French), Loutre à longue queue (French), Neotropical River Otter (English), Nutria De Agua (Spanish; Castilian), Perro De Agua (Spanish; Castilian), South American River Otter (English), Taira (Spanish; Castilian) Synonyms: Lutra longicaudis ssp. longicaudis Olfers, 1818 Taxonomic Notes: The taxonomy of the genus has been debated, but recent work supports the use of the name Lontra rather than Lutra for New World river o=ers (van Zyll de Jong 1982, Larivière and Walton 1998, WozencraH 1993, Koepfli and Wayne 1998). Three proposed subspecies are suggested by their present disjunct distribuOon: L. longicaudis annectens, restricted to México, Central America and north-western South America; L. l. enudris, distributed across the Amazon region, from eastern Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru to north-western Bolivia and northern Brazil; and L. l. longicaudis, southern part of its distribuOon in South America (Larivière 1999, Trinca et al. 2012, Hernández-Romero et al. 2018). Red List Status NT, A3c (IUCN version 3.1) Red List Assessment Assessment Information Date of Assessment: 24/01/2020 Reviewed: 10/03/2020 Assessor(s): Rheingantz, M.L., Rosas-Ribeiro, P.F.; Gallo-Reynoso, J.P.; Fonseca da Silva, V.C.; Wallace, R., Utreras, V. Hernández-Romero, P.C. Reviewer(s): Hussain, S.A., Duplaix, N., Duckworth, W. Contributor(s): Livia Rodrigues, Maria Camila Latorre-Cardenas, Victor Manuel Santiago-Plata Facilitators/Compilers: NA Assessment Rationale The recent increase in available informaOon on the Neotropical O=er reveals that the species is widespread throughout the Neotropics and some adjacent areas. The species occurs in all regions with water bodies with availability of food resources, such as rivers, streams, lagoons, ponds and in coastal areas close to fresh water, with an alOtudinal range between 0 to more than 4000 m a.s.l. The species is negaOvely affected by human presence and environmental quality. There are local conflicts due to retaliaOon by fishermen and fish farmers. The species is also affected by mining acOviOes, polluOon, ca=le ranching, urban expansion, and the hydroelectric network, which have been increasing throughout the species’ range since the last 27 years and can lead to local exOncOons. While criOcal data on aspects of its biology, demography and behavior are sOll lacking for many areas, the effects of a large variety of anthropogenic threats such as polluOon, gold and copper mining and habitat loss have not been rigorously assessed and are increasing across Central and South America. Although some populaOons can occur in disturbed environments, there is li=le informaOon about the long-term viability and sustenance of such populaOons. Physiological stress has been reported in individuals inhabiOng areas with high human acOvity and density, factors that have been negaOvely correlated with the species presence. As a semi- aquaOc species, the Neotropical O=er is associated with well-drained plains and coastal habitats which overlap with the growing human populaOon and its increasing resource demands. This raises negaOve environmental impacts and potenOal human-o=er conflicts. Despite being widely distributed in LaOn America this does not imply that the species is free of populaOon reducOons and local exOncOon risks. In several countries (Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, Belize, Ecuador), it has been idenOfied as threatened in naOonal and regional Red Lists, indicaOng its declining trend. Even in Brazil, where Neotropical O=er was recently assessed and naOonally classified as LC, the species is idenOfied as threatened in some states and regions, such as the AtlanOc Forest biome and has a naOonal decreasing populaOon trend. The paucity of robust biological and demographical data on this species across its large and diverse range hampers consideraOon of appropriate Red List category, and this assessment warrants review as knowledge grows of the species tolerance to various factors. Considering the ongoing threats to the species, it is suspected that in the next 27 years or 3 generaOons (based on Pacifici et al. 2013) there will be a reducOon of ≥ 20% in the global populaOon size of Lontra longicaudis, due to habitat loss and degradaOon. The species is therefore categorized as Near Threatened under the criteria A3c. Reasons for Change Reason(s) for Change in Red List Category from the Previous Assessment: The species remains in the same conservaOon status. Distribution Geographic Range The Neotropical O=er presents the broadest distribuOon among New World o=ers (Foster- Turley et al. 1990, Rheingantz et al. 2018), even though there are several areas where its presence is sOll uncertain. It occurs from north-western Mexico to Uruguay and across the northern part of ArgenOna to the Buenos Aires province. The species is widely distributed in southern Mexico, extending its range to the state of Morelos where its range is bifurcated unOl it reaches southern Tamaulipas on the side of the Gulf of Mexico, and to northern parts of Sonora and Chihuahua states, down to the South Pacific in Chiapas (Gallo-Reynoso 1997, Sánchez and Gallo-Reynoso 2007). In central America, Lontra longicaudis is known to occur from the Pacific to the Caribbean regions of Costa Rica (Wainwright 2007), Guatemala (Quintana-Morales 2013) and Belize (Meerman and Clabaugh 2012), occurring in almost all countries. However, very li=le informaOon is available from this porOon of the species’ range. In Ecuador, the Neotropical river o=er presents a wide range, occupying various habitats from the coastal lowlands to the Amazonia (Utreras et al. 2011, Utreras et al. 2013). There are extreme records of presence at 3,885 m a.s.l. (Castro and Zapata Ríos 2001). Recently, Neotropical O=er was recorded in new localiOes, such as areas surrounding the Ecuadorian and Colombian Andes (Rodríguez-Mahecha et al. 2006). In Bolivia the species is found across the Bolivian lowlands below 2,000 m a.s.l. (except the Chaco dry forests). There are occasional records at higher elevaOons on the humid eastern slopes of the Andes, reaching up to 3,200 m a.s.l. (Tarifa et al. 2010, Wallace et al. 2013). In Brazil, Lontra longicaudis occurs in almost the enOre territory, being absent only from a porOon of the arid northeastern Brazil where river basins are fully located within CaaOnga biome. Despite being absent from this more arid zone, the presence of the species was recently recorded in CaaOnga, in intermi=ent stretches of river basins situated between the CaaOnga and AtlanOc Forest biomes, proving that the species can occur in semiarid condiOons (Rosas-Ribeiro et al. 2017). The presence of Lontra longicaudis was also recently recorded in the coastal zone of the AtlanOc Forest of northeastern Brazil (Astúa et al. 2010, Dantas and Donato 2011, Mendonça and Mendonça 2012, Souto 2012, Rosas-Ribeiro 2017), as well as in the eastern part of Amazonia, in Maranhão state (Mesquita and Meneses 2015). Although Neotropical O=ers are predicted to occur in all those areas, there are gaps in the data for the Brazilian Amazon, Pantanal and Paraguay. Area of Occupancy (AOO) Estimated area of occupancy (AOO) - in km2: NA Continuing decline in area of occupancy (AOO): Decreasing Extreme fluctuations in area of occupancy (AOO): NA Extent of Occurrence (EOO) Estimated extent of occurrence (EOO) - in km2: NA Continuing decline in extent of occurrence (EOO): NA Extreme fluctuations in extent of occurrence (EOO): NA Locations Information Number of Locations: > 1,000 Continuing decline in number of locations: Not assessed Extreme fluctuations in the number of locations: No Very restricted AOO or number of locations (triggers VU D2) Very restricted in area of occupancy (AOO) and/or # of locations: No Elevation / Depth / Depth Zones Elevation Lower Limit (in metres above sea level): 0 Elevation Upper Limit (in metres above sea level): 4000 Depth Lower Limit (in metres below sea level): 14 Depth Upper Limit (in metres below sea level): 0 Depth Zone: Shallow photic zone (0-15 m) Map Status How the map was Please state Map Data Geographic Date created, including reason for Justificatio Statu Sensitive range this restriction data sources/ map not n s ? applies to: imposed: methods used: available: Done - - - - - - Biogeographic Realms Biogeographic Realm: Neotropical and Nearctic Occurrence Countries of Occurrence Presenc Origi Formerly Seasonalit Country e n Bred y Nativ Argentina Extant - - e Nativ Belize Extant - - e Nativ Bolivia, Plurinational State of Extant - - e Nativ Brazil Extant - - e Nativ Colombia Extant - - e Nativ Costa Rica Extant - - e Nativ Ecuador Extant - - e Nativ El Salvador Extant - - e Nativ French Guiana Extant - - e Nativ Guatemala Extant - - e Nativ Guyana Extant - - e Nativ Honduras Extant - - e Nativ Mexico Extant - - e Nativ Nicaragua Extant - - e Nativ Panama Extant - - e Nativ Paraguay Extant - - e Nativ Peru Extant - - e Nativ Suriname Extant - - e Nativ Uruguay Extant - - e Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic Nativ Extant - - of e Population EsOmates of Neotropical O=er’s populaOon size and density have been obtained using different approaches at various Omes in different study areas. Most esOmates are derived from visual censuses performed at disOnct localiOes within the species’ distribuOon and are highly variable when compared to each other. For example, a density esOmate of 0.21 o=ers per linear km of river (km) was reported for southern Mexico (Orozco-Meyer 1998), whereas in ArgenOna it was reported to be 0.06-0.47 individuals/km (Gil-Carbó 2003). In Mexico and Guatemala, addiOonal density esOmates (0.34-4.4 o=ers/km) were obtained through calculaOng the number of faeces/km or the defecaOon rate (Gallo 1996, Nicolás et al.2012, Duque-Dávila et al.