Terrapene carolina (Linnaeus 1758) – Eastern Box Turtle, Common Box Turtle.

Kiester, Ross A.; Willey, Lisabeth L.

doi:10.3854/crm.5.085.carolina.v1.2015

Cited by 21 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 86 publications

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“…Eastern box turtles inhabit temperate and subtropical regions over much of the eastern United States [16]. The species is of conservation concern because populations have declined from habitat loss, road mortality, intense predation (particularly of nests and juveniles), and collection for the pet trade [22]. As such, the species is listed as Vulnerable by the IUCN and is included in CITES Appendix II [23].…”

Section: Study Species and Animal Husbandrymentioning

confidence: 99%

Tradeoffs with Growth and Behavior for Captive Box Turtles Head-Started with Environmental Enrichment

2019

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Head-starting is a conservation strategy that entails releasing captive-reared animals into nature at sizes large enough to better resist post-release predation. However, efforts to maximize growth in captivity may jeopardize development of beneficial behaviors. Environmental enrichment can encourage natural behaviors before release but potentially comes with a tradeoff of reduced growth in complex enclosures. We compared growth and behavior of enriched and unenriched captive-born juvenile box turtles (Terrapene carolina). Enriched turtles grew slower than unenriched turtles during the first eight months in captivity, although growth rates did not differ between treatments from 9–20 months old. After five months post-hatching, unenriched turtles became and remained larger overall than enriched turtles. During two foraging tasks, unenriched turtles consumed more novel prey than enriched turtles. In a predator recognition test, eight-month-old enriched turtles avoided raccoon (Procyon lotor) urine more than unenriched turtles of the same age, but this difference was not apparent one year later. The odds of turtles emerging from a shelter did not differ between treatments regardless of age. Although our results suggest turtles raised in unenriched environments initially grew faster and obtained larger overall sizes than those in enriched conditions, tradeoffs with ecologically-relevant behaviors were either absent or conditional.

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Section: Study Species and Animal Husbandrymentioning

confidence: 99%

Tradeoffs with Growth and Behavior for Captive Box Turtles Head-Started with Environmental Enrichment

2019

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“…The Eastern Box Turtle (Terrapene carolina) is a nominally terrestrial turtle found in temperate forests and early successional mosaics throughout the eastern United States (Dodd 2001, Keister andWilley 2015), including Longleaf Pine forests of the southeast region (Greenspan et al 2015). However, relatively little is known of their ecology in fire-prone systems of any kind (but see Platt et al 2010, Howey and Roosenburg 2013, Roe et al 2017, with only limited information on survivorship, growth rates, body condition, and other vital rates with population-level consequences.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We also examine individual variation in responses to spatial and temporal heterogeneity of fire at the fire-maintained site. Terrapene carolina is a species of conservation concern that is in decline in many parts of its broad geographic range (Keister and Willey 2015), and it may serve valuable functional roles in areas where it is still common (Liu et al, 2004;Dodd 2006;Jones et al 2007;Lovich et al 2018). It is thus important to understand responses of T. carolina to fire and other forest management practices and apply this knowledge to inform conservation and management strategies.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Responses of a forest-dwelling terrestrial turtle, Terrapene carolina, to prescribed fire in a Longleaf Pine ecosystem

Roe

Wild

Chavez

2019

Forest Ecology and Management

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Prescribed fire is commonly used as a tool to meet a range of forest management goals. Owing to their limited movement abilities, terrestrial turtles are likely to be at high risk of injury and mortality, and to experience other fitness consequences with population-level implications from fire. Using radiotelemetry, we studied the responses of Eastern Box Turtles, Terrapene carolina carolina, to prescribed fire management in a sandhills Longleaf Pine forest system over a five-year period and compared our results to a nearby population in an unburned coastal plain location. Individual variation in turtle survival was strongly dependent on how frequently and extensively the areas were burned, with annual survival rates of 94.5% in unburned areas decreasing to 45.9 % in the most extensively burned areas. Turtles at the fire-maintained sandhills site had annual survival rates 4.9 % less than at the unburned coastal plain site, and females had annual survival rates 6.8 % less than males. Survival varied seasonally, with greatest mortality rates in winter and spring, especially among females. Growth rates and body condition did not differ between sites, nor did they vary according to fire extent and frequency at the fire-maintained site. Although mortality was greater and spatially variable at the fire-maintained site, annual survival rates across the site (86-90 % for females and males, respectively) were comparable to other stable populations of T. carolina. The lesser than expected mortality rate at the fire-maintained site was likely the result of turtles' strong selection of mesic hardwood forests near bottomlands and streams-habitats that may serve as refugia from fire. In areas where T. carolina conservation is a priority, land managers should integrate maintenance of fire refuge habitats into burn planning to minimize unintended negative impacts to this imperiled species.

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“…Additionally, this species is more susceptible to road mortality than other turtle species because they tend to close their shell when threatened and remain closed for longer periods of time [90]. Increased road traffic will increase the probability of mortality and assuming no further habitat changes, will lead to a threshold effect that causes widespread local extinction [91]. Although we found that there will be more suitable habitat in the future, it may not do any good with continued habitat fragmentation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 82%

Challenges and Opportunities for Terrapene carolina carolina Under Different Climate Scenarios

Martin

Root

2020

Remote Sensing

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An unprecedented rate of global climate change as a result of human impacts has affected both endotherms and ectotherms. This is of special concern for ectotherms, such as reptiles, as these species are suffering from large population declines and lack the dispersal ability of other taxa. There are many protected areas across the United States; however, these areas are fragmented, which hinders dispersal. We examined species distribution and dispersal capabilities for Terrapene carolina carolina, a relatively narrow range, low dispersal, and vulnerable species. We created climatic suitability models to predict changes in suitable habitat and identified important predictor variables. We modeled three time periods using MaxEnt and hypothesized that there would be an increase in northern habitat. We found that most of the suitable habitat changed at the northern end of the range and that mean temperature of driest quarter had the most influence on future predictions. Overall there were relatively moderate changes in suitable habitat, but where these changes occur affects accessibility. As an example, we examined these local scale movements within Oak Openings Region and found that individuals are capable of dispersing to new suitable habitats; however, other physical barriers will hinder movements. In conclusion, there is a critical need to protect this vulnerable reptilian species and our results suggest that T. c. carolina will expand their distribution northward. We suggest that land managers increase connectivity among protected areas to facilitate dispersal, but future studies should incorporate other dynamic ecological factors at finer spatial scale.

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Terrapene carolina (Linnaeus 1758) – Eastern Box Turtle, Common Box Turtle.

Cited by 21 publications

References 86 publications

Tradeoffs with Growth and Behavior for Captive Box Turtles Head-Started with Environmental Enrichment

Tradeoffs with Growth and Behavior for Captive Box Turtles Head-Started with Environmental Enrichment

Responses of a forest-dwelling terrestrial turtle, Terrapene carolina, to prescribed fire in a Longleaf Pine ecosystem

Challenges and Opportunities for Terrapene carolina carolina Under Different Climate Scenarios

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