Giant otters Pteronura brasiliensis are semiaquatic mammals that mainly eat fish, the abundance of which is affected by seasonal flooding and habitat structure. The piscivorous habits of giant otters lead to negative human perception and conflicts with fisheries. We compared giant otter feeding habits between seasons and habitats in the Southern Pantanal, Brazil, by analyzing feces collected between September 2008 and June 2011.We investigated whether habitat and season affected P. brasiliensis diet composition and prey size. We calculated the frequency of occurrence, relative frequency, and overlap of fish species eaten by giant otters and caught by fishermen. The giant otters had a more diverse assemblage of fish prey than the offtake in the fisheries. We did not find strong seasonality in otter diets, but diet composition and prey size differed between rivers and lakes. The giant otter diet had higher overlap with the offtake of sport than with professional fishermen. Although the otters’ piscivorous diet often leads to negative perceptions by humans, the low overlap between otter diet and species taken in local fisheries suggests that otters have little effect on the commercial fishery. These results indicate that educational programs could be used to reduce perceived conflict between giant otters and fishermen.

中文翻译：

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在大型新热带洪泛区中，巨大的水獭饮食因生境而异，与渔业的摄取量不同

巴西水獭（Pteronura brasiliensis）是半水生哺乳动物，主要吃鱼，鱼类的丰富度受季节性洪水和栖息地结构的影响。大水獭的食肉性习性导致人类消极的感知和与渔业的冲突。我们通过分析2008年9月至2011年6月收集的粪便，比较了巴西南部潘塔纳尔湿地的季节性和栖息地之间的大型水獭摄食习惯。我们调查了栖息地和季节是否影响了巴西乳杆菌。饮食组成和猎物大小。我们计算了大水獭吃掉并被渔民捕获的鱼种的发生频率，相对频率和重叠。巨型水獭的鱼食组合比渔业中的捕获物更为多样化。我们没有发现水獭日粮的季节性很强，但是江河和湖泊之间的日粮组成和猎物大小不同。与专业渔民相比，巨大的水獭饮食与运动的重叠程度更高。尽管水獭的鱼食性饮食常常导致人类的负面看法，但水獭饮食与当地渔业捕捞物种之间的重叠程度低表明水獭对商业性渔业影响不大。这些结果表明，可以使用教育计划来减少水獭和渔民之间的感知冲突。