Hierarchies and Dominance Behaviors in European Pond Turtle (Emys orbicularis galloitalica) Hatchlings in a Controlled Environment

Abstract

Few species of reptiles are known to establish stable social structures and among these, chelonians provided scarce and conflicting results. Moreover, studies on turtles are usually performed on adult individuals. In this study, we checked whether and when hatchlings of the European Pond Turtle (Emys orbicularis galloitalica) established stable hierarchical structures in their first year of life, whether hierarchies were stable in time and how steady they were. We also verified whether social ranks were associated to the individuals’ size. We observed dyadic interactions daily within three small groups of turtles reared in a controlled environment for seven months. After two months, the hatchlings started to interact and progressively established stable hierarchical structures. However, the effectiveness of the three types of observed aggressive behaviors in reversing social ranks was low and the resulting hierarchies were flat. We did not find a significant effect of the turtles’ size on their interactions’ outcome and hierarchy structure. Our results provide clear evidence of the development and the characteristics of social behaviors in young reptiles in captivity. This study could be a starting point for investigating social structures in wild populations.

Turtle‐mediated dispersal of anostracan dormant eggs: Evidence for dominance hierarchy effects

“…Various field studies have documented dominance hierarchies in freshwater testudine populations, with larger sized or older individuals being dominant over smaller or younger individuals (Harding & Bloomer, 1979; Keevil et al, 2017; Masin et al, 2020). We opportunistically tested for the potential of size‐related dominance hierarchy in P. subrufa to contribute to the dispersal of large branchiopod dormant eggs in a southern African temporary wetland complex.…”