Literaturdatenbank
Literaturdatenbank |
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Belleau, P. (2008). Habitat selection, movement patterns, and demography of common musk turtles (sternotherus odoratus) in southwestern québec. Unpublished thesis , McGill University, Montréal.
Added by: Admin (21 Nov 2009 11:53:05 UTC) Last edited by: Beate Pfau (01 Jan 2011 17:26:12 UTC) |
| Resource type: Thesis/Dissertation BibTeX citation key: Belleau2008a View all bibliographic details  |
Categories: General Keywords: Habitat = habitat, Kinosternidae, Nordamerika = North America, Schildkröten = turtles + tortoises, Sternotherus, Sternotherus odoratus Creators: Belleau Publisher: McGill University, (Montréal) |
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| Abstract |
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Sternotherus odoratus I studied the common musk turtle (Sternotherus odoratus) at the northern limit of its range at Norway Bay, Québec, from April to October 2006. Common musk turtles are habitat specialists and are selective of their habitats at the study-area and home-range scales. Beaver (Castor canadensis) lodges were preferred at the studyarea scale. Common musk turtles also preferred beaver lodges, emergent wetlands, aquatic beds with floating and submerged vegetation as well as rocky shores at the home-range scale. At the location scale, common musk turtles chose shallower and cooler sites that contained more logs and submerged vegetation than the sites available at random. There was no significant effect of sex on habitat use at the location scale. There was no significant difference in mean daily movements between the sexes during the active season. However, sex and month probably interact together to influence the mean distance traveled daily by common musk turtles in Norway Bay. Males appeared to move more than females in May, July, and October. Females appeared to move more daily than males in August and September. Neither sex appeared to move more daily in June. However, our small sample size did not allow us to conduct a conclusive analysis. The mean home-range area was 23.9 ha and was not different between sexes. I estimated a density of 4.1 turtles/ha and a sex ratio of 1.7M: 1F. The population includes 59.6% males, 35.8% females, and 4.6% juveniles. Adults ranged from 77 mm to 133 mm in carapace length. Added by: Admin Last edited by: Beate Pfau |