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Farnsworth, S. D., & Seigel, R. A. , On-site and off-site translocations of eastern box turtles: Lack of difference may point to ranavirus.
Added by: Admin (06 Jan 2014 18:22:47 UTC) |
| Resource type: Conference Paper BibTeX citation key: Farnsworth2011 View all bibliographic details  |
Categories: General Keywords: Emydidae, Habitat - habitat, Nordamerika - North America, Schildkröten - turtles + tortoises, Terrapene carolina, Veterinärmedizin - veterinary medicine, Viren - viruses Creators: Farnsworth, Seigel |
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| Abstract |
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Human development represents a serious threat to wildlife populations through continued habitat loss and incidental mortality from construction activities. One approach to mitigate mortalities is to relocate individuals. The effectiveness of translocation for reptiles and amphibians has been questioned, with studies often reporting higher mortality of translocated individuals. Translocations of reptiles and amphibians predominantly involve moving an animal long distances, well beyond the individual's home range. For reptiles this means finding new nesting, foraging, and overwintering sites, which may be problematic. Conducting an "on site" translocation, within their home range, may reduce those problems. As part of the mitigation plan for the Inter-County Connecter highway construction project in central Maryland, groups of Eastern box turtles (Terrapene carolina carolina) were translocated both on-site (<0.5km), and off-site (~5km). To investigate differences in mortality among the three groups, we tracked 100 turtles (32 off-site translocation, 32 on-site translocation, and 34 non-translocation) using radio telemetry. We expected that the on-site group would have mortality rates similar to the nontranslocated group, and both of these groups to have lower mortality than the off-site group. Our results however showed no difference among the three groups, with all groups having higher numbers of mortalities than we expected. Almost all of these mortalities occurred during the summer months and were attributed to disease/unknown causes. We suspect that an unforeseen Ranavirusi infection in this population is playing a large role in the mortalities we are seeing and is likely overwhelming any differences in mortality due to the translocations.
Added by: Admin |