Research
Links to reports, results, and updates arising from Eastern Box Turtle Conservation Trust field research:
Diverse Movement Patterns of North America's Eastern Box Turtle (Terrapene carolina carolina L.).
The central contention of this 3 part series: Trying to predict or characterize behavior for any population of Terrapene carolina is often a misleading exercise owing to appreciable individuality among its members.
All three papers are listed on the IRCF journal which is available on-line at no cost.
One can go to the IRCF journal by clicking the link below, and then just type "box turtle" in the search bar.
Links from all three parts of the manuscript will appear there.
Then click on whichever of the three you'd like to download.
The PDF sizes are as follows: Part 1-28.5 MB, Part 2- 21.3 MB, Part 3- 15.5 MB.
There are maps included showing the travels of the turtles and pictures of our turtles as well.
Or you can just click on one of the green links below and go directly there. Then just click in the "PDF" box to download a copy of that one part of the manuscript.
https://journals.ku.edu/reptilesandamphibians/search
Part 1: Extremes of High and Low Site Fidelity Volume 20: No 2, 53-74 JUN 2013
This first paper presents those turtles that have exhibited extreme ends of the movement spectrum: Individuals that have in the first 10 years of the study have never ventured far from a patch of habitat versus individuals that ranged so far beyond the sanctuary buffer that they had to be retrieved.
Part 2: Circuits Across Expansive Habitat Volume 21: No.2, 44-59 JUN 2014
This second paper continues to follow the individuality of turtle movement and shows how particular turtles have used the habitat across time.
Part 3: Shifts in Residency Fidelity Volume 22; No.2 56-67 JUN 2015
This third paper in the series examines individual turtles that showed remarkable fidelity to a very small area of habitat for extended periods, but then abruptly moved to settle into a new, confined sector and faithfully remained there for the next series of years.
Photo-dependent Localized Color Development in the Eastern Box Turtle Carapace
We thank Mark Miller and the Philadelphia Herpetological Society for the above posting on color development.
Pioneering Box Turtle Conservation Strategies at McKeever, Critical Background Issues.
The following four articles appeared in the "Box Turtle Research and Conservation Newsletter" (BTRCN) Just click on their titles to go directly to the article. Many thanks to Mark Miller and the Philadelphia Herp Society for their help in getting this fourth pdf on-line. We could not have done it without you!
- Some Box Turtle Conservation Issues BTRCN, 1996, 4: 13-14
- Survival Among Translocated Eastern Box Turtles BTRCN, 1999, 8: 7
- Sexual Proclivity Among Translocated Male T. C. Carolina BTRCN, 1999, 8: 8
- Home Range Establishment by Translocated Eastern Box Turtles, pdf format.pdf; BTRCN, 1999, 8: 3-7
(Please note: This article takes a minute to load after clicking on it.)
The following articles appeared in the "Turtle and Tortoise Newsletter" (TTN)
The first two articles below appeared in older issues of TTN (Nos. 1-8). Just click on their titles to go directly to the article.
A Nine Year Study of Eastern Box Turtle Courtship with Implications for Reproductive Success and Conservation in a Translocated Population (Turtle and Tortoise Newsletter, 2000, 6:17-26)
Putative Chipmunk Predation of Juvenile Eastern Box Turtles (Turtle and Tortoise Newsletter, 2002, 5: 8-9)
The next five articles below appear in more current issues of TTN (Nos. 9 and up).
These issues of TTN are available with a subscription from Allen Press. If you hold a subscription you can link to these articles on the Chelonian Research Foundation website.
- A Natural History of Ranavirus in an Eastern Box Turtle Population (Turtle and Tortoise Newsletter, 2011, 15: 18-25)
- A Transmitter Attachment Method for Terrestrial Turtles, Designed to Protect the Radio Module from Mammalian Chewing"
(Turtle and Tortoise Newsletter, 2009, 14:18-21)
- How Do Male Box Turtles Find Mates? (Turtle and Tortoise Newsletter, 2009, 13:11-21)
- Soil Temperature and Nest Site Selection by the Eastern Box Turtle, Terrapene carolina carolina
(Turtle and Tortoise Newsletter, 2007, 10:10-13)
- Variable Production of Annual Growth Rings by Juvenile Chelonians (Turtle and Tortoise Newsletter, 2007, 11: 10-13)
Update on Box Turtle Conservation Research at McKeever, published in Hemlock Pathways summer issue 2009.
Comments by Dr W. Belzer commending a ban of box turtle collecting
(Presented at the PA-FBC Herp Advisory Committee meeting of 5/15/2000.)
The Box Turtle: Room with a View on Species Decline
Long-Term Movement Histories for Headstarted Juvenile, and Translocated Adult and Juvenile Eastern Box Turtles in NW Pennsylvania Sanctuaries. Abstract (Presented at the Third Box Turtle Conservation Workshop, November 9-10, 2007, London Town Public House and Gardens, Edgewater, Maryland, USA). Page 1, Page 2.
Field Observations of North America’s Eastern Box Turtle (Terrapene carolina carolina). PHS Special Publication #2009_02 .
Terrapene Carolina (Eastern Box Turtle). Winter Mortality. (Herpetological Review, 2016, 2: 288-289)
Other turtle websites of interest:
Eastern Box Turtle Conservation Trust on the ArcGIS.com
Turtle and Tortoise Newsletter
The New York Turtle and Tortoise Society