Studies on population structure of freshwater turtles belonging to the family Chelidae are scarce in Brazil. Herein we describe the structure of a population of the chelid Mesoclemmys vanderhaegei in a Cerrado area in the municipality of Chapada dos Guimarães, Mato Grosso, Brazil. A total of 80 individuals were captured in five collecting sites, from January to March 2007: 42 adult females, 27 adult males, and 11 juveniles with undetermined sex. Among 80 individuals, 24% were recaptured, at least once. This is the first attempt to estimate the size of a population of Mesoclemmys vanderhaegei. Our results suggest that additional sampling efforts are needed for more accurate estimates of population structure. Nevertheless, they surely provide minimum values of the number of individuals of M. vanderhaegei living in the locality sampled.
Chelidae; Neotropics; sex ratio; population size; freshwater turtles
