Fifty-year trends in a box turtle population in Maryland

Hall, Russell J.; Henry, Paula F. P.; Bunck, Christine M.

doi:10.1016/s0006-3207(98)00107-4

Cited by 68 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…The turtles were sometimes head-down and sometimes head-up (even for the same turtle, indicating that they can turn around), they moved downward when it got colder and upward when it got warmer, they sometimes changed hibernacula early in the hibernation period, but not far into it, and they exhibited variable site fidelity. In some studies, there has been a higher degree of hibernaculum site fidelity (Stickel, 1989;Hall, Henry & Bunck, 1999), which may have been due to a paucity of suitable sites, and overwintering sometimes involved migration to such sites (Hall et al, 1999).…”

Section: (4 ) Eastern Box Turtle (Terrapene Carolina)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In Missouri, accumulations of shells in some relatively small areas were attributed to turtles that got caught out in the cold, and 68 % of the mortality recorded over time in one population was attributed to winter mortality (Schwartz & Schwartz, 1974). However, box turtles are noted for their longevity (Stickel, 1978 ;Williams & Parker, 1987 ;Schwartz & Schwartz, 1991;Hall et al, 1999), so it seems evident that hibernation mortality is low on an annual basis ; however, this does not preclude it from being a major ultimate cause of death in northern populations.…”

Section: (4 ) Eastern Box Turtle (Terrapene Carolina)mentioning

confidence: 99%

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The ecology of overwintering among turtles: where turtles overwinter and its consequences

2006

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Turtles are a small taxon that has nevertheless attracted much attention from biologists for centuries. However, a major portion of their life cycle has received relatively little attention until recently - namely what turtles are doing, and how they are doing it, during the winter. In the northern parts of their ranges in North America, turtles may spend more than half of their lives in an overwintering state. In this review, I emphasise the ecological aspects of overwintering among turtles, and consider how overwintering stresses affect the physiology, behaviour, distributions, and life histories of various species. Sea turtles are the only group of turtles that migrate extensively, and can therefore avoid northern winters. Nevertheless, each year a number of turtles, largely juveniles, are killed when trapped by cold fronts before they move to safer waters. Evidently this risk is an acceptable trade-off for the benefits to a population of inhabiting northern developmental habitats during the summer. Terrestrial turtles pass the winter underground, either in burrows that they excavate or that are preformed. These refugia must provide protection against desiccation and lethal freezing levels. Some burrows are extensive (tortoise genus Gopherus), while others are shallow, or the turtles may simply dig into the ground to a safe depth (turtle genus Terrapene). In the latter genus, freeze tolerance may play an adaptive role. Most non-marine aquatic turtles overwinter underwater, although Clemmys (Actinemys) marmorata routinely overwinters on land when it occurs in riverine habitats, Kinosternon subrubrum often overwinters on land, and several others may overwinter terrestrially on occasion, especially in more southern climates. For northern species that overwinter underwater, there are two physiological groupings, those that are anoxia-tolerant and those that are relatively anoxia-intolerant. All species fare well physiologically in water with a high partial pressure of oxygen (PO2). A lack of anoxia tolerance limits the types of habitats that a freshwater turtle may live in, since unlike sea turtles, they cannot travel long distances to hibernate. Hatchlings of some species of turtles spend their first winter in or below the nest cavity, while hatchlings of other species in the same area, including northern areas, emerge in the autumn and presumably hibernate underwater. All hatchlings are relatively anoxia-intolerant, and there are no studies to date of where hatchling turtles that do not overwinter in or below the nest cavity spend their first winter. Equally little is known of the ontogeny of anoxia tolerance, other than that adults of all species are more anoxia-tolerant than their hatchlings, probably because of their better ossified shells, which provide adults with more buffer reserves and a larger site in which to sequester lactate. The northern limits of turtles are most likely determined by reproductive limitations (time for egg-laying, incubation, and hatching) than by the rigors of hibernation. Mortalit...

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Section: (4 ) Eastern Box Turtle (Terrapene Carolina)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: (4 ) Eastern Box Turtle (Terrapene Carolina)mentioning

confidence: 99%

The ecology of overwintering among turtles: where turtles overwinter and its consequences

2006

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“…No carapace lengths by age group across survey periods were significantly different. Hall et al 1999) and those of ornate box turtles are , 40 yrs (Legler 1960;Blair 1976;Metcalf and Metcalf 1985). I determined age of younger (up to 14 yrs) desert box turtles using scute annuli, which have been shown to be accurate for ornate box turtles in Kansas (Legler 1960).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Activity, Growth, Reproduction, and Population Structure of Desert Box Turtles (Terrapene ornata luteola) at the Northern Edge of the Chihuahuan Desert

Germano¹

2014

Chelonian Conservation and Biology

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“…Most contemporary box turtle populations probably have densities far below optimal (cf., Williams 1961;Murphy 1976;Stickel 1978Stickel , 1989Schwartz et al 1984;Hallgren-Scaffidi 1986;Williams and Parker 1987;Klemens 1989Doroff and Keith 1990;Lieberman 1994;Pritchard 1995;McCollough 1997;Tyning 1997;Hall et al 1999;Miller 2000Miller , 2001Niederriter 2000;Dodd 2001;Lodato and Halvershorn 2001;Belzer 2002;Niederriter and Roth, 2004) and are poor at rebounding from adult losses (e.g., Adler 1970;Stickel 1978;Williams and Parker 1987;Hall et al 1999). Among the 20 chelonian genera found in the United States and Canada (Ernst et al 1994), no genus has a lower median clutch size than Terrapene (Appendix III of Kohler 2005).…”

Fifty-year trends in a box turtle population in Maryland

Cited by 68 publications

References 13 publications

The ecology of overwintering among turtles: where turtles overwinter and its consequences

The ecology of overwintering among turtles: where turtles overwinter and its consequences

Activity, Growth, Reproduction, and Population Structure of Desert Box Turtles (Terrapene ornata luteola) at the Northern Edge of the Chihuahuan Desert

The Newsletter of Chelonian Conservationists and Biologists

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