Diet of the Carolina Diamondback Terrapin (Malaclemys terrapin centrata) in Northeastern Florida

Diet of Diamondback Terrapins (Malaclemys terrapin) in Subtropical Mangrove Habitats in South Florida

“…Tucker et al (1995) and Butler et al (2012) found the salt marsh periwinkle, Littoraria irrorata, to be the gastropod most heavily consumed by mature females; yet we found the mangrove periwinkle, Littoraria angulifera, in the diets of only 2 Large terrapins. Petrochic (2009) found the mud snail Ilyanassa obsoleta to be the most frequently consumed gastropod; yet neither Tucker et al (1995), Butler et al (2012), nor we found I. obsoleta in samples. Table 3.…”

“…Although vegetation had a high FO, as in previous studies (Tucker et al 1995;Petrochic 2009;Butler et al 2012;Erazmus 2012;Tulipani 2013), we presumed it to be incidental ingestion that may have been associated with the consumption of targeted invertebrate prey species and was excluded from our analyses. Several fecal samples also contained additional nonfood items excluded from the analyses (sand, manmade debris, parasites).…”

“…In addition to the 5 food categories and species data used in statistical analyses, we classified additional nonfood categories and subsequently excluded them from analyses. Similar to Butler et al (2012), we combined crabs into one category and vegetation consisted of combined terrestrial and aquatic sources. Frequency of occurrence (FO) is an appropriate metric when individual prey items cannot be quantified because of fragmentation as in the present study (Rosenberg and Cooper 1990); thus, for each category, we calculated total dry mass (in grams) and FO within the mangrove system, separated by habitat and terrapin size class.…”

“…They occur from Massachusetts along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts to Texas. Previous terrapin diet studies have been limited to temperate salt marshes in north Florida (Butler et al 2012), South Carolina (Tucker et al 1995, North Carolina (Spivey 1998), Maryland (Roosenburg et al 1999), Virginia (Tulipani 2013), and New York (King 2007;Petrochic 2009;Erazmus 2012). Results of these studies showed that terrapins are secondary consumers that feed on benthic invertebrates and revealed the role of the terrapin as an integral component of the estuarine food web (Hurd et al 1979;Tucker et al 1995).…”

“…Previous terrapin diet studies in more temperate regions have shown immature females to have diets more similar to males, being of similar size, but dissimilar to the larger mature females that have more powerful jaws enabling them to consume a wider diversity of prey (Tucker et al 1995;Petrochic 2009;Butler et al 2012;Tulipani 2013). A shift in diet has also been reported in female terrapins, coincident with movements between habitats during the nesting season (Butler et al 2012). Here, we investigated size-and habitat-related variation in SF terrapin diets for terrapins sampled within the boundary of Everglades National Park.…”