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Blake, S., Kozlowski, C., Fung, J., Wang, J., & Deem, S. L. , Rural box turtles in missouri have bigger home ranges and lower corticosterone levels than urban ones (abstract). Unpublished paper presented at 2013 Box Turtle Conservation Workshop.
Added by: Admin (06 Jan 2014 18:24:05 UTC) |
| Resource type: Conference Paper BibTeX citation key: Blake2013 View all bibliographic details  |
Categories: General Keywords: Emydidae, Habitat - habitat, Nordamerika - North America, Physiologie - physiology, Schildkröten - turtles + tortoises, Stress - stress, Terrapene carolina Creators: Blake, Deem, Fung, Kozlowski, Wang Collection: 2013 Box Turtle Conservation Workshop |
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| Abstract |
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Terrapene carolina Box turtles were once ubiquitous through much of the eastern and central United States, but are now in steep decline due to a combination of habitat loss and fragmentation, road kill, disease and the live turtle trade for food and pets. Despite Archie Carr’s assertion that “everyone likes box turtles”, lack of understanding of these threats means that the public remains largely unaware of this conservation crisis. Since 1) populations of box turtles can occur close to urban centers, and 2) there is an urgent need for better data on trends in ranging, health, and demography of box turtles in relation to human activities, an opportunity exists to combine research, management and hands-on outreach in a unified conservation framework. In 2012 we initiated a pilot project in St. Louis, Missouri, to quantify home range size and health status of box turtle populations in urban and rural conditions, generate a meaningful local outreach program, and assess the options for developing a long term conservation initiative. The project took place in Forest Park, in St. Louis city, and the Tyson Research Center, a rural site some 20km from the city limits. Forest Park is a 556ha mosaic of woodland fragments embedded in a traditional city parkscape of golf courses, playing fields, lakes, and other recreation areas traversed by roads and bike trails. Tyson Research Center is an 809ha fenced, protected oak-hickory forest block bisected by one tarmacked road and a network of tracks. We fitted VHF tags to ten adult turtles at each site and regularly recorded their locations using GPS through the summer until brumation. We completed biophysical exams and took blood samples from tagged individuals and a further 63 turtles at the two sites. The mean home range (MCP) of urban turtles ( was two orders of magnitude smaller than that of rural turtles ( . The mean blood corticosterone level of urban turtles was over twice that of rural turtles . We currently have no causal explanations for these results, though likely reasons include that the small forest fragments of Forest Park may limit turtle movements compared to the larger rural habitat which increases physiological stress. Moreover, the heavy human use of Forest Park may lead to high levels of disturbance for these urban turtles. Outreach activities included introducing several groups of local school children to the turtles of Forest Park, and integrating undergraduates and high school students as part time research technicians. The level of interest and enthusiasm of all participants was extremely high, and resulted in a series of posters, promotional videos, and other outreach products. Our pilot study revealed that 1) while large urban parks can support box turtle populations, their ecology and health may be compromised compared to rural populations, and that 2) studies of urban box turtle populations and those close to large cities and towns provide exciting opportunities for outreach to local people with potentially high conservation and societal impacts.
Added by: Admin |