Literaturdatenbank
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Farnsworth, S. D., & Seigel, R. A. , Responses, movements, and survival of relocated box turtles during the construction of the inter-county connector highway in maryland. Unpublished paper presented at The Transportation Research Board (TRB) 92nd Annual Meeting.
Added by: Admin (06 Jan 2014 18:24:23 UTC) |
| Resource type: Conference Paper BibTeX citation key: Farnsworth2013 View all bibliographic details  |
Categories: General Keywords: Emydidae, Habitat - habitat, Nordamerika - North America, Schildkröten - turtles + tortoises, Terrapene carolina Creators: Farnsworth, Seigel Collection: The Transportation Research Board (TRB) 92nd Annual Meeting |
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| Abstract |
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We compared the success of different techniques of relocations as a means of mitigating the impacts of the construction of a major highway on Eastern Box Turtles (Terrapene c. carolina) in Maryland. We compared the movement patterns, home range size, and survival of turtles from three treatment groups between 2008-2011; turtles native to the study site and not moved during the study (native turtles), turtles native to the site, but which were removed from the limit of disturbance (LOD) of the highway and relocated within 500 m of their original location (on-site relocations), and turtles that came from areas at least 5 km from the study area and which were relocated within 250 m of the LOD (off-site turtles). Turtles in the off-site group had larger home ranges and moved longer distances than either on-site or native turtles. However, unlike other studies of relocations for turtles, off-site relocated turtles did not make permanent movements off of the study area nor did they have difficulty finding suitable sites for overwintering. We found no statistically-significant differences in survival among our three treatment groups. However, overall survival rates were <65% over the three years of our study, considerably lower than rates seen in other Box Turtle populations, perhaps due to an emerging pathogen (Ranavirus), which caused numerous deaths of Box Turtles. Our recommendations for “Best Practices” centered on the need for more effective wildlife exclusion fences to be built and maintained earlier in the construction timeline. Failure to create and maintain such a barrier in our study lead to numerous “trespass” events, where turtles moved onto the LOD and would likely have been killed without our intervention
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