By Kaitlin Saxton | Research and Husbandry Coordinator
Meet one of our telemetry turtles, CHO!
This female box turtle is over 20 years old and has been part of our radio telemetry project since 2011. Long term data collection is important for species like eastern box turtles who can live over 50 years. By tracking their movements, we can learn more about their home range and preferred habitats. With urbanization and habitat fragmentation increasing, it is important to understand where box turtles live and how far they travel. Roads and cars remain some of the biggest threats to turtles in the wild.
As you can see on the map below, while CHO does go on the occasional adventure far away, she mainly prefers a small area of Leigh Farm Park covered with mixed hardwood and pine forest. Here, she can find plenty of logs and leaf litter to relax in on a hot summer day. When temperatures rise, box turtles can enter a state of inactivity called aestivation and will seek out shady, moist places to keep cool. By studying where box turtles like to be, we can learn more about what kinds of habitat they need to be able to thrive.
Thank you for supporting box turtle conservation!
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