Record Type: Research Project

Project Start Date: Jan. 1, 2010

Principal Investigators: John Brady, Matthew Munson, Katherine Pavlis, Christopher Raxworthy, William Schuster, Martha Villaba

Description: The population of Painted turtles (Chrysemys picta) is being surveyed at Black Rock over the long-term to determine demographic changes, survivorship, and movements between ponds. Five ponds have surveyed since 1997, and most of the adult population have been marked with PIT tags to allow easy individual identification. Overall survivorship of turtles between years to high, and there is ongoing recruitment in ponds with large populations. Population size differences between the ponds at Black Rock has been found to be substantial, and there is some movement of turtles between ponds. A future research objective will be understand what factors influence population size in ponds. This project also provides students the opportunity to get practical experience with handling turtles, and monitoring wild populations.

Keyword: Animals, Community/Population Ecology, Reptiles, Short-Term

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