Coypu Project - Secretaria de Ambiente y Desarrollo Sustentable

Management of wild life in ArgentinaIntroductionThe species and its useThe coypu (Myocastor coypus), also calledquiyá or false otter, is a relatively large rodent(it weights an average of 5 kg), of amphibioushabits, native of large wetland systemscharacteristic of southeastern regions inSouth America (Parera, 2002). This species isone of the most representative and historicallyabundant species of wild fauna in Argentina(Bó et al., in press) due to its herbivorousnature, its relatively high reproductive rate, itstolerance to a wide range of climatic andhydrologic conditions and its high capacity ofdispersion and colonization. This isparticularly true for the subspecies M.c.bonariensis, which inhabits the basins of ourregional large rivers (Paraguay, Paraná,Uruguay and Río de la Plata) and the lakesystems of the pampas.The interaction between man and coypu isvery old. Guaraníes, chaná-timbués andquerandíes, among others, used coypus’meat as food and its skin to make clothing.Later, the criollos intensified their use not onlywith the purpose of human survival, but alsoencouraged by the commercial demand ofskins. The sale of coypu skin has been and ispresently very important for our country. Forexample, until 1997, an average of 5,000,000skins were exported annually (Bó, 1999). Forseveral decades, the number of specimenscaptured, the important quantity of peopleinvolved in the different links of thecommercial circuit (such as hunters,gatherers, tanners, furriers and exporters) andthe amount of money in circulation have madethe coypu the main resource of wild fauna inArgentina (Bertonatti and Corcuera, 2000).However, until very recently, scientificresearches on the coypu in its original andnatural environment were scarce and isolated.What is more, until 1998, hunting activitieswere carried out without a specimen’s quota,added to the fact that the official huntingseason (fall-winter) was set according toclearly commercial criteria and not accordingto ecological ones. As fall-winter is the coldestseason of the year, the felt of the coypus’ skinis thicker and has, therefore, greater value(Porini et al., 2002b).Objectives of the projectThe need to advance knowledge on thebioecological aspects of the coypus and tosubsequently propose accurate guidelines forits management led professionals andtechnicians from the DFS (State Departmentof Wild Fauna), the provincial departments offauna from Buenos Aires, Entre Ríos, SantaFé, Corrientes and, most recently, Chaco andFormosa (Santiago del Estero, Cordoba andRío Negro will soon be incorporated), andresearchers from the University of BuenosAires Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences(FCEYN-UBA) to start in 2001 the CoypuProject (Bó and Porini, 2001). In this paper,the activities and advances of the first threeyears of the project are summarized. Themain objectives of this first phase were:• To generate basic bioecologicalinformation on M. coypus.• To design and test methodologies forthe adequate gathering of suchinformation.• To evaluate the conditions of wildpopulations and their habitat in the main“coypus exploitation areas” in Argentina.• To formulate recommendations for thesustainable management of thespecies.On the basis of the data collected, a plan ofaction has been initiated through simple andconcrete measures. This plan aims atcontributing not only to the sustainablemanagement of the species and of thewetlands it inhabits, but also to theimprovement on the quality of life of thosehuman communities in our country that havetraditionally used the coypu as a resource fortheir survival. This project is expected tocontribute in the taking of administrativedecisions on the coypu resource withadequate scientific grounds and precise tools–realistic as regards their effectivepossibilities of implementation. It is alsoexpected to allow collecting information atlevels fitting the decisions of both users andgovernmental officials.- 2 -