Observação do comportamento alimentar de um espécime de Trachemys dorbigni com deficiência visual comparado a um espécime sem deficiência

Abstract

The chelonians are reptiles of the Order Testudines that have a rigid shell that covers their body, they are tortoises and turtles. The turtles show one of the most complex visual system among vertebrates, being extremely visual animals. In this study, we observed the foraging and feeding of two specimens of Trachemys dorbigni, one of them being visual impaired from birth and the other one considered normal (without visual impairment), aiming to delimitate how the lack of such an important sense for these species influences on your feeding behavior. The specimens were fed individually or in pair, every day of the week with 10g of varied food items between fruits, vegetables or proteins, in a specific area only for feeding. One species of aquatic vegetation (Salvinia sp.), was also used for observation. The blind specimen uses from strategies such as touch and smell to find the food, spending more time in a longer and slow process, demonstrating a difficulty to find the food when compared to the non-visual impaired specimen. The normal specimen also had a difficulty to find the food only when its vision wasi nterruptedby the aquatic vegetation present. No aggressive interactions between the two specimenswere observed when they were fed together.