Life history and demography of the mud turtle Kinosternon chimalhuaca in a drainage ditch from an urban area in Jalisco, Mexico

The Jalisco mud turtle Kinosternon chimalhuaca is an endemic species from the Pacific coast of Jalisco and Colima states, Mexico. The species has been poorly studied and much of its natural history and ecology are unknown. We analysed the demography and basic reproductive ecology of a population inhabiting a canal in a peri-urban area on the coast of Jalisco, Mexico. We use a mark-capture-recapture dataset collected over four years (2019–2022) to perform multi-state and time-symmetric open models (Pradel) to calculate population growth, recapture and transition probabilities. A total of 530 turtles were captured and marked during the study. Survival probability was higher in adults compared to juveniles. The estimated abundance of the population studied was between 699 and 778 turtles, with a sex ratio biased toward females. Using radiographs, we found that clutch size was 3.89 (± 0.81) eggs, with a range from 3 to 6 eggs, we also found evidence of pelvic constraint on egg size. The studied population is restricted to subsidised man-made canals and was considered stable. The information generated in this paper will be useful for the much needED conservation assessments of mud turtles. Keywords: abundance, survivorship, recapture probability, reproduction, pelvic constraint, subsidised population