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Habitat Modeling and Conservation of the Western Chicken Turtle (Deirochelys Reticularia Miaria)

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Habitat Modeling and Conservation of the Western Chicken Turtle (Deirochelys Reticularia Miaria) Herpetological Conservation and Biology 12(2):307–320. Submitted: 10 December 2016; Accepted: 7 April 2017; Published: 31 August 2017. Habitat Modeling and Conservation of the Western Chicken Turtle (Deirochelys reticularia miaria) Wade A. Ryberg1,7, Brad D. Wolaver2, Heather L. Prestridge3, Ben J. Labay4,6, Jon Paul Pierre2, Ruth A. Costley2,5, Connor S. Adams1, Brandon C. Bowers1, and Toby J. Hibbitts1,3 1Texas A&M Natural Resources Institute, College Station, Texas 77840, USA 2Bureau of Economic Geology, Jackson School of Geosciences, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78758, USA 3Biodiversity Research and Teaching Collections, Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843, USA 4Department of Integrative Biology, Biodiversity Collections, Texas Natural History Collection, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78758, USA 5currently with CP&Y, Inc., Austin, Texas 6currently with Siglo Group, Austin, Texas 7Corresponding author, e-mail: [email protected] Abstract.—The Western Chicken Turtle (Deirochelys reticularia miaria) is considered rare and declining throughout its range, although no population surveys have been conducted range-wide. Uncertainty regarding population status and perceived threats to habitat convinced the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to consider Endangered Species Act protection for the subspecies. The goal of this study was to inform the listing process by describing the biological and conservation requirements for Western Chicken Turtles. We modeled potentially suitable habitat throughout the range of the subspecies and quantified current and future threats to that habitat in Texas, USA. Potentially suitable habitats with the highest probability of occurrence were concentrated in southeast Texas and southwest Louisiana, especially where low elevation wetlands were in high density. Wetland loss and fragmentation in urban and urbanizing rural areas, particularly around Houston, represent the greatest current and future threats to habitat in Texas. Population surveys targeting potentially suitable habitat indicate that this subspecies is rare. From 4 February to 6 July 2015, we conducted 1,491 visual observation and road-cruising surveys across 107 counties, and recorded 2,458 aquatic trap nights at five sites near historical localities. Between 15 April and 5 May 2015, each survey method produced a single Western Chicken Turtle observation (n = 3). Current population threats from commercial harvest and export appear insignificant for this subspecies, although continued monitoring of wild populations is recommended. We also recommend expanded wetland protection policies for areas identified as high quality habitat that are under the greatest threat. Key Words.—ephemeral wetlands; fragmentation; habitat perforation; harvest; terrestrial; urbanization Introduction especially amphibians and reptiles (Gibbons 2003; Semlitsch and Bodie 2003). Indeed, landscape matrix Populations of wetland species are declining quality can be more important than overall wetland worldwide due to habitat loss (Gibbons et al. 2000; Stuart amount for many amphibian and reptile wetland species et al. 2004; Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2005). (Quesnelle et al. 2015). Because many wetland species The most common conservation practice implemented also require terrestrial resources, policies that only to protect such species is wetland preservation restore and create wetlands may not result in recovery of (Quesnelle et al. 2015). For example, the goal of the No declining amphibian and reptile populations. With these Net Loss wetland policy of the U.S. federal government policy limitations in mind, here we characterize the is to maintain individual or groups of wetlands or to current status of Western Chicken Turtle (Deirochelys maintain the total amount of wetlands at a regional reticularia miaria) habitat and identify current and scale (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency [USEPA] future threats to habitat and populations in Texas, USA, 2002). One problem with this policy is that it does to frame the development of a conservation plan for the not protect the landscape surrounding wetlands, which species. implicitly assumes the species only needs wetlands to Chicken Turtles (D. reticularia) are semi-aquatic persist (Bauer et al. 2010). This assumption is certainly members of the Emydidae family that inhabit shallow, not true for all wetland species experiencing declines, ephemeral bodies of water and adjacent terrestrial Copyright © 2017. Wade A. Ryberg 307 All Rights Reserved. Ryberg et al.—Conservation of the Western Chicken Turtle. habitats throughout the southeastern U.S. (Buhlmann of these studies was short, the positive population growth 1995; Buhlmann et al. 2008; Ernst and Lovich 2009). rate and high adult annual survival observed contradicts They are unique among emydids because of their the perception of population decline in Western Chicken carnivorous diets, pharyngeal feeding, short life spans, Turtles. Instead, these studies suggest chicken turtle fast growth rates, cool season nesting, and terrestrial populations are less dense than those of other turtle affinity (Gibbons 1969; Bennett et al. 1970; Gibbons species within the same community (Congdon et al. and Greene 1978; Gibbons et al. 1983; Gibbons 1986), which could give the appearance of decline. For 1987). This species is separated into three subspecies example, population densities based on observed and based on geographic variation in morphology (Swartz estimated population size for the Arkansas population 1956). The Western Chicken Turtle (D. r. miaria) were 3.7 turtles/ha and 5.6 turtles/ha, respectively, which occurs west of the Mississippi River in Louisiana, is similar to densities observed in other regions of the Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas, and exhibits distribution of the species (Dinkelacker and Hilzinger dark, seam-following marks on a yellow plastron that 2014). Populations of 3–5 turtles/ha are considered the Eastern (D. r. reticularia) and Florida Chicken normal in Florida, and populations of 10 turtles/ha Turtles (D. r. chrysea) typically lack (Buhlmann et al. are considered high (Ewert et al. 2006). However, an 2008). In addition to these morphological differences, estimate of 17.7 turtles/ha was reported as normal for a phylogenetic comparisons suggest a deep split between population of Eastern Chicken Turtles in South Carolina Western Chicken Turtles and the other two subspecies (Congdon et al. 1986). (Walker and Avise 1998; Hilzinger 2009). Resolving this uncertainty in the population status The ecology of the Western Chicken Turtle is of Western Chicken Turtles is critical given the many poorly understood compared to its eastern counterparts perceived threats to this subspecies and lack of laws (McKnight 2014), but biological uniformity across to protect its habitat. Although data were lacking for subspecies is often assumed. This assumption is Western Chicken Turtles prior to this study, substantial questionable given the variability in habitat type, alteration or loss of freshwater wetland habitats to availability, and connectivity, as well as the variable agriculture and urban development in the southeastern climate across the range of the species (Kawecki and Ebert U.S. has caused declines in populations of similar 2004). Moreover, diet and reproductive characteristics amphibians and reptiles (Buhlmann et al. 2009; U.S. of species are frequently tailored to local environmental Fish and Wildlife Service [USFWS] 2011). The Western conditions (Stearns 1992). For example, past research Chicken Turtle is thought to have suffered even greater has shown that Eastern and Florida Chicken Turtles are declines from alteration or loss of habitat than other strict carnivores, feeding primarily on aquatic insects species, because the ephemeral, depressional wetlands and crayfish (Jackson 1996; Demuth and Buhlmann that make up its habitat are frequently classified as 1997). However, recent research suggests that Western non-adjacent, geographically isolated wetlands (GIWs; Chicken Turtles are more omnivorous, feeding on plants Leibowitz 2015). To be considered a waterway of the in addition to aquatic insects and crayfish (McKnight et U.S. and protected by the Clean Water Act (CWA), al. 2015a). Additionally, recent observations indicate wetlands must be shown to be connected to or have that Western Chicken Turtles exhibit a discrete nesting a significant nexus with traditional navigable waters season rather than the bimodal nesting season observed (TNW; USEPA 2015). However, such connections are in the other two subspecies (McKnight et al. 2015b). difficult to identify using traditional national wetland Western females are unique in that they develop follicles databases (e.g., National Wetland Inventory, National from March to July, are gravid from April to July, and Hydrography Dataset) or maps generated from other nest from May to July. During this time, other subspecies remote sensing products (Leibowitz 2015) because they are generally not reproductively active (Buhlmann et al. often occur as infrequent surface events or are obscured 2008). as subsurface groundwater flowpaths (USEPA 2015). The Western Chicken Turtle is also assumed to Thus, site visits to determine connections between be rare and declining throughout its range, although GIWs and TNWs must coincide with events generating no formal survey has been conducted range-wide surface water or groundwater connectivity.
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