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Box turtle study uncovers “rhythm of life” on Platte River island
By Mark M. Peyton
I was tired. We’d been walking now for almost three hours, the dogs and I. It was a nice day for walking, but still, my legs were telling me they were happy we were coming to the end of the walk.
It was then I noticed the young dog smelling the ground. The “pup” is only six months old and is just now starting to learn important things like not going to the bathroom on Cindy’s carpet or chewing up my boots. I had him out with the older dog hoping he would learn from her to find turtles. So far, no luck in about five attempts.
I watched the pup as he followed the scent trail to the edge of the embankment. I walked over. Just over the edge was a turtle. The pup’s first.
The turtle was a male ornate box turtle. He had deep red eyes. Deeper red than most so I decided to take a photo. The battery in the camera I keep in the “turtle bag” was dead. The truck was about a quarter-mile away. I left the “turtle bag” at the site of capture and, carrying the turtle, headed for the pickup. I had walked about 50 yards when the pup started sniffing again. His second turtle. This time a female. I stuck a stick in the ground to mark where the turtle was found and carried both turtles to the truck. There I picked up my other camera and headed back to the spot where I’d left the “turtle bag”.
A Platte River turtle study
I was out studying these little terrestrial turtles for many reasons. First, I like them. Second this is an isolated population stuck on an island in the Platte River, and anytime biologists can study an isolated population they want to do so. Lastly I wanted to study the turtles to see if the management actions that the Central Nebraska Public Power and Irrigation District were undertaking for this property were good or bad when it comes to box turtles.
The 4,500 acres of the Jeffrey Island Habitat Area is to be managed for cranes, least terns, piping plovers, and other migratory waterfowl. We are in our ninth year of management and I wanted to know what our management actions are doing to the multitude of other species that inhabit this island. Thus, the turtle study.
Once we find a turtle, we take a GPS reading to get an exact location. We take a picture of the turtle’s back. We sketch on a “turtle map” the patterns on one scale (called a scute) along the midline of the back, and we mark the turtle shell with a file in a specific pattern so that in the future we can identify the turtle if we happen to catch it again. We also take a weight and a variety of length measurements. This tells us the approximate age, and if the turtle is captured again we get growth information. Once we have all that data recorded we release the turtle in the same place where it was captured.
This is what I was going to do with the two turtles I had in hand. They, however, had other ideas. When I got back to the “turtle bag” that held the portable scale, calipers, and file, I put them down on the ground. As I was getting the tools from the bag they also got busy.
A little about box turtles
Box turtles are small turtles that live on the ground. They can swim, but if left in water too long they will drown. They are a prairie species found in about 12 different states. They are considered threatened or endangered in a few states and possession and collection is controlled in all but one.
Ornate box turtles live a long time, 50 to 75 years. As with many long-lived turtles this means that sexual maturity does not occur for a number of years. It may take a male ornate box turtle six to seven years of growth to become sexually mature with the female not reaching maturity until the seventh or eighth year of life. Then, once box turtles do reproduce they do not produce the multitude of eggs that the aquatic species do. A typical box turtle nest may contain as few as four eggs.
The largest threats to this species are the loss of natural prairie to row crops or alfalfa, collection by people who want pets or who want to sell the turtles as pets, and cars. If a road or highway crosses the turtles’ three acre home range it is almost inevitable the turtle and a vehicle will eventually have an encounter. In one study in Kansas, on 220 miles of a single highway, 178 dead ornate box turtles were seen in one day!
The pet trade danger in Nebraska is somewhat reduced due to regulations adopted by the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission. At one time you could buy an ornate box turtle in almost any pet store, complete with small aquarium, for $29.99! Given that only the older, sexually reproducing individuals are out wandering where it is easy to see them, that collecting had a dramatic impact on population densities. It is now no longer legal to transport any reptiles across the Nebraska state line, nor to sell any wild caught reptiles, including box turtles. You may collect up to three to keep as pets, however, if you release them after a time, you must release them within 100 yards of where they were captured.
In the spring a young turtle's fancy...
I got to where I had left the bag, as I said earlier, and I started to get the measuring devices out. The turtles also got to work. The male passionately attacked the female. He pushed and shoved her around and eventually mounted her. I had to separate them to get measurements of both. While I was then recording the GPS locations he once again got into position. I once again separated them to get pictures. I thought my interruptions might kill the romantic moment and they would separate and do their darnedest to escape. Nope. Right back to it.I finished recording my data and the two dogs and I set out on our last half hour of searching. When that was completed I walked back over to where I had left the turtles. It was 35 minutes since I had left them and yet, there they were, still engaged, if you will, in the work of life.
Thus, unless our management practices prove to be detrimental to them, we should continue to have ornate box turtles on the Island, and that’s a good thing if for no other reason that I can continue to go out and look for them.
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