Papers by Flavio de Barros Molina
Ethnobiology and Conservation, 2020
Serpentiform body is a morphological adaptation present in several groups of animals. This body s... more Serpentiform body is a morphological adaptation present in several groups of animals. This body shape is often associated with snakes, which can result in the indiscriminate killing of animals. Despite their great socioeconomic and ecological importance, snakes are commonly associated with feelings of aversion, fear, and disgust, that may lead to the inhibition of conservation measures. The present work was conducted in the vicinity of the M'Boi Mirim Park, in São Paulo (Brazil) to record popular knowledge and to discuss public feelings and attitudes towards snakes and other elongated legless animals. We conducted semistructured interviews with 70 participants. The largest percentage of the participants identified snakes by the forked tongue and cylindrical body shape, obvious characteristics to human eyes. In an encounter with a serpentiform animal that may be a venomous snake, this behavior is advantageous as it is better to deal with a false positive than with a false negative. However, this result demonstrated a lack of adequate knowledge about the morphological traits exclusive to snakes. Many participants are afraid of snakes, which, along with misidentification, can cause disastrous encounters and lead to the killing of any snakelike animal. Furthermore, we found that even in a large city, legends and myths about snakes and snakelike animals are passed on through generations. Additionally, people are unaware that some snake populations or even species are under risk of extinction. Our results point to the need for an educational program that changes public attitudes towards snakes and snakelike animals at Municipal parks.
Check List, 2010
Kinosternon scorpioides scorpioides is the only subspecies of K. scorpioides with a South America... more Kinosternon scorpioides scorpioides is the only subspecies of K. scorpioides with a South American distribution. We report the third known register of this taxon for the state of Mato Grosso, Brazil, representing the first record from the Aripuanã River basin. This point is at 390 km and 910 km western from the two previously known records of this species in Mato Grosso, reinforcing the importance of inventories of K. s. scorpioides.
Chelonian Conservation and Biology, 2015
Hydromedusa maximiliani is a freshwater turtle endemic to the Atlantic Forest of eastern and sout... more Hydromedusa maximiliani is a freshwater turtle endemic to the Atlantic Forest of eastern and southeastern Brazil and threatened by extinction. Here, we add 15 new locality records for this species based on photographs of specimens encountered in the field and examination of museum collections. We also used ecological niche modeling tools of 3 different algorithms (GARP, SVM, and Maxent) to suggest potential suitable areas for the occurrence of the species. Models predict 53,679-263,844 km 2 of suitable habitat for H. maximiliani, with 8396-31,758 km 2 inside protected areas. Besides being useful in a reassessment of the species' conservation status, our results contribute to the knowledge of distribution patterns of H. maximiliani and highlight potential areas to drive future field surveys.
Zootaxa, 2012
Resumo Mesoclemmys heliostemma (Testudines: Chelidae) was described based on five vouchered speci... more Resumo Mesoclemmys heliostemma (Testudines: Chelidae) was described based on five vouchered specimens and nine live specimens from the western Amazon basin. Some authors questioned its status as a valid species, suggesting that it represents a junior synonym of M. raniceps. Here, we report on eight additional specimens from eastern Peru and northern Brazil, and provide descriptive statistics of morphological characters for hatchlings, juveniles, and adults of M. heliostemma, M. raniceps, and M. gibba. We also ...
Chelonian Conservation and Biology, 2015
Fowler/Biology, 2001
... Duarte, and LABM Lula, eds., Anais do III Workshop sobre Conservação e Manejo do Jacaré-de-pa... more ... Duarte, and LABM Lula, eds., Anais do III Workshop sobre Conservação e Manejo do Jacaré-de-papo-amarelo (Caiman latirostris ... In Proceedings of the 49th Annual Con-ference of the IUDZG(The World Zoo Organization ... Reproductive biology and embryology of the crocodilians ...
Fowler/Biology, 2001
... 1994. Environmental sex determination in reptiles: Patterns and processes. Journal of Experi-... more ... 1994. Environmental sex determination in reptiles: Patterns and processes. Journal of Experi-mental Zoology 270 (1). 30. Lee, MSY 1993. The origin of the turtle body plan: Bridging a famousmorphological gap. Science 261: 17161720. 31. Licata, L.; and Elguezabal, X. 1997. ...
Revista Brasileira de Zoologia, 1990
Phrynopsgeofroanus is a camivorous side-necked turtle. Its feçding behavior is divided in foragin... more Phrynopsgeofroanus is a camivorous side-necked turtle. Its feçding behavior is divided in foraging, approach, capture, di/aceration and ingestion, but not necessary ali these phases happen. Location of food seems to be visual and recognition olfactory.
Revista Brasileira de Zoologia, 2003
ABSTRACT The feeding behavior and the food preference was studied in P. expansa (Schweigger, 1812... more ABSTRACT The feeding behavior and the food preference was studied in P. expansa (Schweigger, 1812) P. unifilis (Troschel, 1848) and P. sextuberculata (Cornalia, 1849). The method used for feeding behavior and food preference was the sampling of all occurrences. The Students' t test was applied on the food items, to compare differences during the development of each species. The main conclusions are: feeding behavior for food, except alive animals, is divided in foraging, approach, olfactory recognition, capture, laceration and ingestion; the persecution behavior was observed for prey activity; cleptoparasitism occurs in the three species and neustophagia mechanism was detected in P. unifilis; P. sextuberculata shows to be almost only carnivorous and P. expansa and P. unifilis show to be omnivorous; P. expansa can be considered more herbivorous in captivity than P. unifilis during the age between one and five years old and more than five years old; P. expansa is more sensitive than P. unifilis concerning the alteration of the food place, mainly the meat, decreasing its consumption, if it is put on a dry place.
Revista Brasileira de Zoologia, 1998
Revista Brasileira de Zoologia, 1998
Chelonian Conservation and Biology, 2015
Hydromedusa maximiliani is a freshwater turtle endemic to the Atlantic Forest of eastern and sout... more Hydromedusa maximiliani is a freshwater turtle endemic to the Atlantic Forest of eastern and southeastern Brazil and threatened by extinction. Here, we add 15 new locality records for this species based on photographs of specimens encountered in the field and examination of museum collections. We also used ecological niche modeling tools of 3 different algorithms (GARP, SVM, and Maxent) to suggest potential suitable areas for the occurrence of the species. Models predict 53,679-263,844 km 2 of suitable habitat for H. maximiliani, with 8396-31,758 km 2 inside protected areas. Besides being useful in a reassessment of the species' conservation status, our results contribute to the knowledge of distribution patterns of H. maximiliani and highlight potential areas to drive future field surveys.
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Papers by Flavio de Barros Molina