Journal of Threatened Taxa |
www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 January 2023 | 15(1): 22510–22514
ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893
(Print)
https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.7566.15.1.22510-22514
#7566 | Received 11 July 2021 | Final received
12 November 2022 | Finally accepted 09 January 2023
The Marine Otter Lontra felina
(Molina, 1782) (Mammalia: Carnivora: Mustelidae)
along the marine protected areas in Peru
José Pizarro-Neyra
Asociación para el Desarrollo de las Ciencias Biológicas en el Perú, Calle
Arica 176, Tacna, Perú.
Editor: Anonymity requested. Date of publication: 26 January 2023
(online & print)
Citation: Pizarro-Neyra (2023). The Marine Otter Lontra felina (Molina, 1782)
(Mammalia: Carnivora: Mustelidae) along the marine
protected areas in Peru. Journal of Threatened Taxa 15(1): 22510–22514. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.7566.15.1.22510-22514
Copyright: © Pizarro-Neyra 2023. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
License. JoTT
allows unrestricted use, reproduction, and distribution of this article in any
medium by providing adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of
publication.
Funding: None.
Competing interests: The author
declares no competing interests.
Acknowledgements: I am grateful with
the National Service for Protected Areas of Peru (SERNANP) for providing me
with information on the population of marine otters within marine protected
areas.
Abstract: Lontra felina (Molina, 1782) or Marine Otter is an endangered
species according to the IUCN Red List and lives mainly on the rocky coast of
Peru and Chile. In Peru it inhabits some marine protected areas, ports and some
rivers. To determine the current state of conservation, monitoring data of
National Reserves of Paracas, San Fernando & the
Guano´s Islands, Islets & Capes National Reserve System were analysed as well as the management plans of each
marine protected area. According to the results, the Marine Otter is only a
target species in the Paracas Reserve. The Guano´s
Islands, Islets & Capes National Reserve System is a network of
mini-reserves that maintains the largest population of Marine Otters in Peru in
at least 14 of its 33 protected sites. The effectiveness of management for L.
felina is only verified in the case of the
National Reserve of Paracas.
Keywords: Effective
conservation, Guano´s Islands, Islets & Capes National Reserve System,
Mustelids, Paracas, population.
The Marine Otter Lontra felina
Molina, 1782 is an ‘Endangered’ species on the IUCN Red List (Mangel et al. 2022). This otter is distributed along the
rocky shore from northern Perú to southern Chile as well as in some rivers in
Peru (Jefferson et al. 2015). The habitat fragmentation, the entanglement in
fishing gear of artisanal fisheries, the attack of dogs and pollution are
considered the main menaces for L. felina
(Medina-Vogel et al. 2008; Pizarro 2008; Valqui
2012). In Peru the National Service of Protected Areas (SERNANP in Spanish)
manages some sites inhabited by Marine Otters (Ortiz et al. 2021). However, the
current population size of Marine Otter along the Peruvian marine protected
areas is unknown. The current population status and management effectiveness of
the Marine Otter in the Peruvian marine protected areas is described in the
present note.
Materials and Methods
The study sites:
Three national reserves were studied using monitoring data of L. felina requested from SERNANP in December 2020. The
location, coordinates and coastal length of the sites are shown in the Table 1.
The coastal length was estimated using the multimedia tool ‘Catastro
Acuícola Nacional’ (Ministerio
de la Producción, 2022). The reserves are in fact
marine protected areas as follows:
National Reserve of Paracas was the first marine protected area of Peru. Paracas was initially planned as a sanctuary for marine
life with an area of 8 km2 (ONERN 1974). Finally, it was established
as an MPA (Marine protected area) with an area of 3,350 km2 and a
coast-line length of 140 km approximately. Paracas
shoreline includes fishermen settlements, rocky and sandy beaches and two
islets. Furthermore, currently Paracas is part of the
hemispheric network of bird reserves and is a RAMSAR site as well. Many
threatened species as seabirds, and marine mammals, including the Marine Otter
would be seeing within the reserve (SERNANP 2016a).
Guano´s Islands,
Islets and Capes National Reserve System (RNSIIPG by its acronym in Spanish)
was created in 2009 comprising 22 islands or islets and 11 capes, covering more
of 1,400 km2 (SERNANP 2016a). It is the first MPA founded in Peru
designed as a network of several small protected sites. The RNSIIPG has as
purpose conserve a representative sample of the biological diversity of coastal
and marine ecosystems of the Humboldt cold sea current, ensuring continuity of
the biological cycle of the species that inhabit there, as well as their use
sustainable with fair participation and equitable benefits derived of the use
of their resources (Ortiz et al. 2021). Almost all the RNSIIPG sites were in
the past capes and islands managed for the exploitation of guano along the
coast by the Peruvian government and therefore the establishment of a marine
protected area inspired by a model of several mini reserves matches perfectly
(Figure 1). The main threatened species to conserve in RNSIIPG are the Guano
birds: Phalacrocorax bougainvilli,
Sula variegata and Pelecanus
thagus. Another endangered species protected
within the RNSIIPG are the South American Fur Seal Arctocephalus
australis, the South American Sea Lion Otaria byronia, the
Green Turtle Chelonia mydas
as well as the Humboldt Penguin Spheniscus humboldti (SERNANP 2016b).
National Reserve of
San Fernando was founded in 2011, under the perspective of the conservation of
a biological corridor between the highlands and the coast to permit migration
of fauna such as Andean Condor Vultur gryphus and Guanaco Lama guanicoe.
The main part of this reserve is terrestrial and includes fragile ecosystems as
the “lomas”, a plant formation endemic of the desert
in Peru and northern Chile. The marine zone of the reserve comprises mainly
cliffs and small-scale fishery villages as well. San Fernando is a refugee for
guano birds, Humboldt Penguins, pinnipeds and associated fauna like the Marine
Otter. There is very little information about Marine Otter population in this
reserve.
To obtain data about
population of L. felina in the reserves above
mentioned, the author requested this information to the SERNANP in December
2020. In January 2021 SERNANP answered with the letter CARTA Nº 0001-
2021-SERNANP-AIP (see Annex 1), with the correspondent data of Marine Otter
population. The information about Marine Otters was ordered by population in
each site, coastal length and coordinates (Table 1). For the National Reserve of San Fernando the
data were taken data from Apaza & Romero (2012).
To determine the
effective conservation of the species, were analyzed management plans from each
marine protected area looking for indicators of conservation and management of
L. felina, following in part the recommendations of
Hockings et al. (2015).
Results and Discussion
According to the data
recorded, the population size of Marine Otters within the three protected areas
studied during 2020 is 120 individuals. In addition, the RNSIIPG exhibits the
largest population of L. felina among the
marine protected areas of Peru with 71 individuals monitored (Table 1). SERNANP communicated that currently in the
Reserve of San Fernando has no Marine Otters, therefore was consigned the
population size mentioned by Apaza & Romero
(2012) for this site.
On the other hand,
the review of the reserve management plans shows that the Marine Otter is only
a target species within the Paracas National Reserve.
Following the management plan of the Paracas Reserve,
at least 20 individuals of L. felina should
live in this protected area to reach the goal of conservation of this species
(SERNANP 2016a). According to the population reported for Paracas
in the Table 1, the effective conservation of this species has been achieved.
The RNSIIPG and the Reserve of San Fernando do not include the Marine Otter as
an element of conservation (SERNANP 2016b, 2019).
The population of L.
felina in Peru estimated by various authors is
variable. Recent studies estimate a population between 789 and 2131 individuals
for Peru and Chile (Valqui 2012), while Apaza & Romero (2012) suggest that 756 individuals inhabit
Peru. However, the latter authors analyzed data from 130 different locations in
Peru while Valqui (2012) only used a few sites to
record the presence of Marine Otters in Peru. In any case, using the estimates
of Apaza & Romero (2012), and according to the
data presented here, the Marine Otters that inhabit marine protected areas in
Peru represent about 15% of the total extant in the country and these MPA are
located mainly in the central and northern coast of Peru (Figure 1). The Marine
Otters outside marine protected areas are distributed mainly in the southern
coast of Peru (Ortiz et al. 2021) and there is a population living in
freshwater habitats at the Department of Arequipa, located at the south of the
country (Duplaix & Savage 2018).
In relation with the
management effectiveness of the Marine Otter within the reserves, the fact that
the Marine Otter appears as a conservation element only in the Reserve of Paracas would means that this species counts with previous
studies which has been used to design the protected area and to perform a
better management plan. Effectively, Grimwood (1969)
mentioned that L. felina was abundant in Paracas before the elaboration of their first management
plan. Later, several authors mentioned L. felina
as a common species in Paracas (Brack-Egg
1978; Majluf & Reyes 1989; Pulido 1991; Sánchez
1992; Ormeño et al. 2008). Conversely, the vision of
the management plan of the RNSIIPG explain that the outputs and outcomes of the
management of the reserve are based in the protection of guano birds, pinnipeds
as well as fishes and invertebrates of importance to the small-scale fisheries
(SERNANP 2016b). It is a characteristic of MPA within the category VI of IUCN,
where the main objective is to protect natural ecosystems and use natural
resources sustainably, when conservation and sustainable use can be mutually
beneficial (Dudley et al. 2012). In this context, the conservation of
Marine Otter has been not prioritized. However, the fact that in the RNSIIPG
the Marine Otter is part of a biodiversity monitoring programme
could be seen as an attempt to achieve biological integrity of the reserve. And
it opens the option to include the Marine Otter as target species in the
RNSIIPG; there are sufficient data that evaluate the persistence of the species
in some sites of this network of mini reserves. Moreover, since the Marine
Otter is distributed in isolated patches along the coast and has a limited home
range to 1-4 lineal km (Medina-Vogel et al. 2008; Jefferson et al.
2015), a network of sites would be a proper measure to conserve this species.
In the case of the Reserve San Fernando the main problem to conserve the Marine
Otter is the shore geomorphology with predominance of cliffs, wherein it is
difficult to monitor the otters; the reason for few data from this site.
Consequently, Sánchez (1992) as well as Apaza &
Romero (2012) report only 1–4 otters there.
Table 1. Population
of Lontra felina
(Molina, 1782) in marine protected areas of Peru.
Marine protected
area |
Location |
Marine Otter
population (year) |
Coastal length
(km)*** |
National Reserve of
Paracas |
-14.116666667,
-76.216666667 |
45 (2019) * |
140 |
National Reserve
San Fernando |
-15.136111112,
-75.367777778 |
1-4 (2012) ** |
88 |
RNSIIPG-Punta Coles
Cape |
-17.702777778,
-71.379444445 |
5 (2020) * |
5 |
RNSIIPG-Hornillos Cape |
-16.875555556,
-72.285 |
Without data |
6.3 |
RNSIIPG-La Chira |
-16.516388889,
-72.933333334 |
1 (2020) * |
2 |
RNSIIPG-Atico Cape |
-16.231388889,
-73.695555556 |
10 (2020) * |
6.4 |
RNSIIPG-Lomas Cape |
-15.571388889,
-74.8525 |
5 (2020) * |
2 |
RNSIIPG-San Juan
Cape |
-15.3655, -75.1921 |
1 (2018) * |
4.7 |
RNSIIPG-Asia Islet |
-12.788055556,
-76.286944445 |
5 (2020) * |
7.3 |
RNSIIPG-Pachacamac Islet |
-12.30256,
-76.90055 |
4 (2020) |
2.6 |
RNSIIPG-Cavinzas Islet |
-12.115833334,
-77.205277778 |
9 (2020) * |
1.7 |
RNSIIPG-Pescadores
Islands |
-11.786111112,
-77.205833334 |
8 (2020) * |
4 |
RNSIIPG-Salinas
Cape |
-11.291388889,
-77.318888889 |
3 (2020) * |
5.2 |
RNSIIPG-Don Martin
islet |
-11.020277778,
-77.669722223 |
1 (2020) * |
2.4 |
RNSIIPG Colorado
Cape |
-10.49138, -77.9641 |
2 (2020) * |
1.4 |
RNSIIPG-Culebras Cape |
-9.949722223,
-78.233611112 |
6 (2020) * |
4.7 |
RNSIIPG-Santa
Island |
-9.024166667,
-78.668333334 |
12 (2020) * |
9.2 |
RNSIIPG-Corcovado
islet |
-8.939444445,
-78.701388889 |
2 (2020)* |
0.8 |
RNSIIPG-Chao Islet |
-8.759722223,
-78.790833334 |
3 (2020)* |
3 |
Source: Letter CARTA
N0 0001 - 2021-SERNANP-AIP*, Apaza &
Romero (2012)** and Ministerio de la Producción (2022)***.
For
figure - - click here for full PDF
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