Wildlife Conservation United States Project #15173

Help Save the Box Turtles!

by Piedmont Wildlife Center

Project Report | Dec 23, 2014
Hibernation Time!

By Sara Marschhauser Steffen | Conservation Coordinator

Turtle OPV with transmitter

Right on schedule, our turtles started hibernating mid-November!

As mentioned in the last update, “BIL” lost his transmitter and we were looking for a replacement. Shortly after we found a transmitter and no turtle, our fall conservation intern, Taylor, found a new turtle! She dubbed him "OPV". He is in a completely different area of the park that has not been explored by a transmitter turtle. See the map for his location. We hope he gives us some interesting data!

Over the summer many of our turtles had traveled longer distances than in previous years. By the end of September they had moved back to their typical home range locations. However, one turtle, "ALM", continues to be an anomaly. Since September, she moved completely outside of her home range, and also outside of the park. If you look at the map, "ALM" is now located on the other side of a neighborhood that is adjacent to the park. She is a very busy female. There are quite a few reasons she may have moved locations: low food supply, fewer males to mate with, fewer hibernation sites, or younger and fitter turtles in the area pushing her out. What other reasons do you think she would have to move over 600 meters away? We’ll see what she does after she wakes up from hibernation in the spring. If she stays on the other side of the neighborhood, perhaps we’ll find more suitable habitat and even more turtles in an unexplored area!

Two of our turtles, "ABP" and "AOW", hibernated very close to each other. This has not been documented before with our other transmitter turtles. These two turtles were actually very close to each other all summer, and were caught mating once during tracking. Turtles (or reptiles in general) are not considered monogamous animals. They will mate with as many other turtles as possible in hopes of procreating and passing on their genes. We’ll see if "ABP" and "AOW" stick near each other in 2015, and if they mate again!

We appreciate all the support our Box Turtle project has received. Without this crucial research we cannot protect box turtles in North Carolina (or other areas) in the future.

Turtle Map

Links:

Citizen Science Box Turtle Project

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Sep 22, 2014
Nearing the End of the Season

By Sara Steffen | Conservation Coordinator

Turtle Home Range GIS Map

So far in 2014 we have discovered 14 turtles in Leigh Farm Park. Seven of which were new turtles that had not been previously found. For comparison, in 2013 we found 41 turtles, only 14 which were previously marked. The turtles must have been much more camouflage this year. We still had summer camp kids running around the woods looking for turtles, so yet again – an unanswered question. Why did we find fewer turtles this year compared to the previous 3 years? We’re not sure yet, but it’s a good baseline to help us understand population levels. More questions means we need to do more research!

The turtles that were previously found outside of their “normal” home ranges have moved back. Two of our turtles were found close to a busy highway that borders our park (see the map), but luckily they turned around before getting too close to the highway. CHO’s data points are closest to the highway (very southern edge of the map) and ALM moved further south as well.

We have added one new turtle to our study, BMW. BMW is in a slightly different area than our other transmitter turtles, so it should be interesting to see where he goes. On the map, do you see the blank area in the park between the northern edge of AOW and ABP and the southern edge of ALM? That’s where BMW was found. BMW is not on the map yet, as we only have a couple of data points for him.

We also just recently lost a transmitter from one of our turtles. Our turtle, BIL lost his transmitter last week. Fortunately we have a year’s worth of data. This just goes to show that research doesn’t always go as planned. The transmitter should still have about 12 months of battery power left, so we hope to find a new turtle before they start hibernating for the winter. Last year the turtles started hibernating mid-November. We’ll keep tracking throughout the winter to see when they start and end hibernation.

For now, we’ll keep looking out for turtles. If you live in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area of North Carolina, make sure to help us with our citizen science project. See the link below.

If you want to support this project – the best time to give is Oct 15, 2014 at 9am on the dot! Your donation will have a match at exactly 9am, but funds don’t last long! Help us save the box turtles!

Links:

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Jun 25, 2014
Conservation Interns Track Turtles

By Sara Marschhauser | Project Leader

Transmitter turtle "OPQ" hiding.

The transmitter turtles finally woke up in the middle of May! Just in time for our summer conservation interns to learn how to track them. Fortunately, our turtles had no visible signs of illnesses after waking up from a 6-month hibernation. They have been very active as well. In fact, many of our turtles have moved outside of their “normal” home ranges. Not many studies have tracked turtles for more than a couple of years, and we have been tracking some of our turtles for more than 3 years. The reason the turtles are traveling longer distances than in previous years is unknown. One idea is that the construction surrounding the park has disturbed the turtles. Another is that these turtles are older and may be pushed out of their ranges due to a higher density of younger, more fit turtles. Only research will be able to determine whether or not the above hypotheses or true, or if there’s another reason they are traveling further.

Our conservation interns are an essential part of our box turtle project. They work tirelessly during the hot and humid summer to keep up with the box turtles. Other than the reward of spotting the turtle, sometimes interesting activities are documented. For the first time since starting our project, two of our transmitter turtles were caught mating. In the past, we have found turtles mating, but never 2 transmitter turtles. We always hope we can catch one of our turtles laying eggs, so we can study the nest site as well. Our interns always express that "this is great experience, and I love getting out in the field and tracking."

Stay connected with us and let us know when you find box turtles. You can always get involved with our citizen science project to help study turtles in the Triangle (Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill area). Just check out this link: http://www.piedmontwildlifecenter.org/citizen-scientists/

Thank you!

Intern, Molly, recording turtle data

Links:

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