Chelonoidis denticulatus

Chelonoidis denticulatus We recorded 35 individuals of C. denticulatus, 33 in active search during transects and two by occasional encounters. The records of occurrence of C. denticulatus were similarly distributed among the regions of the Reserve (west, north and south; Figure S1). Most individuals of C. denticulatus were recorded in the coastal plain forest (97.1%), at an average distance of 280 m from the nearest water resource. We detected the species at 14 out of 24 sampling sites. The estimated population size of C. denticulatus for the entire reserve area was 153 individuals (153.27 ± 18.09). The estimated probability of occupancy was 66% (0.66 ± 0.12) and the estimated detection probability was 12% (0.12 ± 0.02). The results of the model selection indicated that only the accumulated rainfall of the day before the sampling influenced the detectability of C. denticulatus, showing a positive relationship with the climate variable (Figure 2). In addition, the best occupancy models contained the variables of distance from water and forest cover (Table 1). The probability of C. denticulatus occupancy increased with increasing percentage of forest cover and decreased with increasing distance from water (Figure 3). However, it is important to note that the difference in AIC values between the top model and the next best model, which excluded forest cover, was minimal. This slight difference suggests that the simpler model, with fewer parameters, could also be considered a strong candidate. While we selected the model including forest cover as the best model, both models provide valuable insights into the factors influencing the occupancy of C. denticulatus.