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Treasuring Terrestrial Turtles The HERP Project, Herpetology Education in Rural Places and Spaces In Awe of Nature: Treasuring Terrestrial Turtles By Ann Berry Somers, Catherine Matthews, and Lacey Huffling The Herp Project is supported by the National Science Foundation, Grant No. DRL-1114558. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this manuscript are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. Treasuring Terrestrial Turtles Before starting a project similar to the one described in this curriculum, contact your state wildlife resources commission or state division of fish and game to see what permits you need to work with box turtles. I. Project Description This curriculum was developed by The HERP (Herpetology Education in Rural Places and Spaces) Project to introduce participants to the wonders of nature and science through the study of box turtles (Terrapene spp.). The curriculum was developed over several years of working with high school students in our Herpetological Research Experience (HRE) residential program. Feel free to modify this curriculum as needed. In our program, participants are introduced to turtle biology as well as to The Box Turtle Connection (BTC), our long-term mark/recapture box turtle study in North Carolina. The BTC is designed to follow temporal trends in population size and structure (sex, age class) as well as the health and condition of individual box turtles from numerous sites across North Carolina. The data collected are important to help scientists determine if box turtles need special conservation measures to maintain their populations and thrive in their natural habitat. Our box turtle studies are enhanced by use of Boykin Spaniel dogs to locate and retrieve box turtles and use of radio tracking to determine activity ranges for male and female box turtles. For more information about the box turtle curriculum of The HERP Project, see the UNC TV episode focusing on box turtles. The Committee On Standard English and Scientific Names (2012) established a standard for names for reptiles and amphibians, which was published by the Society for The Study of Amphibians and Reptiles. Included in that document were directives for box turtle nomenclature and standards for capitalization. It was determined that the English name of a subspecies should not be identical to the English name of the species. Previously, the name Eastern Box Turtle referred to both Terrapene carolina and Terrapnen carolina carolina. Now, the English name for T. c. carolina is Woodland Box Turtle to avoid conflating the two taxa. The following should be considered correct terminology as regards box turtles in North America: T. baurii Taylor, 1894)—Florida Box Turtle T. carolina (Linnaeus, 1758)—Eastern Box Turtle T. c. carolina (Linnaeus, 1758)—Woodland Box Turtle 2 T. c. triunguis (Agassiz, 1857)—Three-toed Box Turtle T. ornata (Agassiz, 1857)—Ornate Box Turtle T. o. luteola (Smith and Ramsey, 1952)—Desert Box Turtle T. o. ornata (Agassiz, 1857)—Plains Box Turtle Woodland Box Turtles and Three-toed Box Turtles are also Eastern Box Turtles, which is the more inclusive category. Likewise, Desert Box Turtles and Plaines Box Turtles fall under the more inclusive category of Ornate Box Turtles. When discussing specific categories of turtles such as Eastern Box Turtles or Desert Box Turtles, we will use the convention of capitalizing each single word in the name. When discussing box turtles as a group, we will begin each word with a lower case letter so that it will appear as “box turtle” rather than “Box Turtle.” II. Philosophical Teaching Points Central to our program’s success is the inquiry method of teaching and learning. Our programs include discussions, rather than presentations where participants are expected to sit quietly and listen. A successful discussion has participants asking and answering questions. Don’t worry about wrong answers; there will be time to correct misconceptions. Questions like the following are helpful in engaging the participants meaningfully: “What makes a box turtles special?”, “What makes a box turtles a box turtles?”, “How would you describe a box turtles to someone who has never seen one?”, “Can a turtle crawl out of its shell?”, or “What are the names of the scutes (scales) on a turtle’s shell?” Discussion about box turtle shell video: https://vimeo.com/112868050 III. Learning Objectives After completing this project, participants will be able to: 1. Engage in inquiry investigations that demonstrate an understanding of the nature of science 2. Demonstrate techniques to safely catch, handle, house (if necessary) and release box turtles 3. Demonstrate appropriate use of equipment and measurement tools 4. Explain the trapping methods that are used in this project 5. Describe human threats to box turtles and some of the actions a person can take to diminish those threats 3 6. List characteristics of box turtles (and other reptiles) 7. Distinguish box turtles from semi-aquatic turtles 8. Describe the general natural history of Eastern Box Turtles (Terrapene carolina) such as age to maturity, food preferences, home ranges, predators, sex determination, etc. 9. Measure and mark box turtles according to the protocol established in The Box Turtle Connection: Building a Legacy (Somers et al., 2017) and enter data in a citizen science database IV. Instructor Background Needed to Conduct Project Leaders of this project do not need a lot of experience, but it is strongly suggested that potential leaders read this curriculum thoroughly as well as other material on box turtles, such as Ken Dodd’s Natural History of Box Turtles (2001). Leaders should also download the free book The Box Turtle Connection (Somers et al., 2017). The book was written to support a long-term citizen science box turtles project and the vast majority of the material in it will be highly useful and should be considered required reading for the curriculum Project Leader. Included are range maps, measuring diagrams, codes for marking turtles, gardening for box turtles tips, how to build a brush pile, and much more. Project Leaders and other educators may access many educational resources available on the Box Turtle Connection’s website (https://boxturtle.uncg.edu/). Below is background material on box turtles that will be helpful to experienced as well as novice Project Leaders, but is not a substitute for the materials mentioned above. A Brief Primer on Box Turtles Box turtles are a group of closely related turtles found in central and eastern North America, and includes many regions of Mexico. Many people find box turtles engaging and charismatic, and, because of this, they are particularly good subjects for connecting students to nature and interesting them in science. Furthermore, box turtles are an essential part of the environment and are the state reptile in at least four states (North Carolina and Tennessee [Eastern Box Turtle], Kansas [Ornate Box Turtle], and Missouri [3-Toed Box Turtle]). All but one of the box turtle species are terrestrial. They are omnivores, contributing to the food web both as predators and as prey. They eat a variety of plants, mushrooms, and insects and comfortably dine on carrion when the opportunity arises. Box turtles are also some of the slowest reproducing species in the world. 4 Females do not reach sexual maturity until around the age of ten. Compare this with a white-tailed deer who can birth a fawn at 18 months of age. In the 10-12 years it takes a box turtle to lay her first clutch of eggs, there could be seven generations of deer. Scientists suspect that box turtle populations are declining due to habitat fragmentation and destruction, disease, and mortality due to lawn mowers, tractors, bulldozers, and car strikes on roads. Many young turtles and some adult turtles fall prey to raccoons, coyotes, turkeys, and domestic dogs. Since most box turtles have small home ranges, building roads for housing developments and shopping malls often means cutting through their home places. Often, turtles must cross roads to reach food, water, mates, and safe places to overwinter which puts them at risk of being hit by cars or moved to unfamiliar territory by well-meaning people. A box turtle moved from its home may spend the rest of its life trying to return home. By studying box turtles, we can learn more about the turtle’s migration patterns, reproduction, health, condition, and habitat choice. We can also learn about the human-caused threats to long term health of populations. Like people, some box turtles can live to be more than 100 years old, yet, unlike humans, their life expectancy is falling rather than rising. Scientists know that box turtles not only can live a long time, they must live a long time. Because box turtles have low reproductive rates (few eggs and hatchlings each year, with high mortality in these life stages), they must live a long time in order to leave at least two offspring that will survive to adulthood, one each to replace themselves and their mate. When this occurs, population sizes remain stable. But scientists believe that populations of box turtles in many places are declining (Swarth and Haygood, 2004). In North Carolina, they are considered a species of “greatest conservation need” by the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission’s NC Wildlife Action Plan. The North American Box Turtle Conservation Committee holds meetings biannually in different parts of the range of Terrapene (box turtles) to provide a forum for the latest scientific research and to promote networking among the conservation-minded. Although some people think turtles can survive any The fused ribs and bones of the injury, this is far from the truth. Some box turtles have shell vertebral column make up the injuries (nicks, scratches, missing pieces) or missing limbs carapace shown here.
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