Characteristic of Catchment Habitat and Demographic Parameter of Harvested Population of Amyda cartilaginea (Boddaert 1770) in Central Kalimantan Province

Abstract

Amyda cartilaginea (Boddaert 1770) is one of harvested turtle species in Indonesia, mainly for consumption purpose in oriental countries. In order to prevent over-exploitation and the declining of the population, harvesting has been limited by quota. However, there is still too few supporting data, that can be used as a basis to determine the quota. The research was aimed to identify characteristics of catchment habitat, and also the demography and morphometric parameters of A. cartilaginea in Central Kalimantan Province. The result showed that harvested population of A. cartilaginea was dominated by adult females within the range weight of 3 – 5 kilograms of body mass. Two statistical tests were applied to describe the characteristic of catchment habitat of A. cartileginea in Central Kalimantan. Chi-square test on the types of land cover suggested that A. cartileginea catchment habitat had a specific condition. Index Neu showed that the catchment habitat were swamp and river (w=10,17; w=6,28 respectively). Binary logistic regression was used to construct a model which explained the dominant variables influencing the number of A. cartileginea at a certain point of habitat. There were four biophysical variables that significantly drove the number of catchment of A. cartileginea, and all were negatively correlated with number of catchment.