• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

Please note that all specific location information has been removed from this document to protect the Blanding’s turtle populations 1 Final Report to Nongame Wildlife Office, Minnesota DNR, Brainerd, 56401 Title: Blanding's Turtle (Emydoidea blandingii) at Camp Ripley: critical habitats, population status, management guidelines. Investigators: Dr. Jeffrey W. Lang, Associate Professor, Biology Todd Sajwaj, MS candidate, Biology Steve Piepgras, MS candidate, Biology University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, ND 58202 contacts: JWL, phone 701777 4564; fax 701 777 2623 email: [email protected] Collaborators: John Moriarty, Henn. Co. Parks,, (consultant) Carol Dorff Hall, Mn Co Biol Survey, (advisor) Dr. Justin Congdon, Sav. River Ecol. Lab (advisor) Time Period: 1 January 1996-31 December 1997. Location: Minnesota Army National Guard, Camp Ripley Training Site, Little Falls, Minnesota Final Report Completed: March 1998 Abstract: Recent studies in Minnesota indicate that Blanding's turtle is long-lived, reproduces over many seasons, and utilizes a mosaic of widely spaced wetlands and uplands. Effective conservation requires information about population status and detailed data on seasonal habitat use by all age/ sex classes. In this report, we provide an introduction and background on the study species, describe the study site and our study methods, present the results, and then discuss our findings in light of previous studies. Finally, we make recommendations on managing the habitats critical to the continued well being of the Blanding's turtles at Camp Ripley and surrounding areas, and on monitoring and managing the turtles, particularly in delineated areas where significant numbers of the population are known to nest, spend the summer months, and overwinter. 2 Table of Contents Title page/ abstract .......................................................................................................................1 Table of contents . .........................................................................................................................2 List of tables .................................................................................................................................4 List of figures . ..............................................................................................................................5 Introduction / background ............................................................................................................6 Project Rationale ..........................................................................................................................8 Study Site .....................................................................................................................................9 Methods………………………………………………………………………….. ......................11 Turtle surveys .................................................................................................................11 Marking procedures.........................................................................................................13 Telemetry and movement ...............................................................................................14 GIG/ GPS protocols .......................................................................................................15 Nesting, egg incubation, hatchling methods ..................................................................16 Temperature, activity, and feeding .................................................................................17 Results..... ................................................................................................................................ ....19 Surveys / capture / distribution ......................................................................................19 Population structure/ densities .......................................................................................21 Habitats/ movements ......................................................................................................22 Reproductive ecology ....................................................................................................26 Growth/ size/ feeding......................................................................................................30 Thermal ecology/activity ...............................................................................................31 Discussion ..................................................................................................................................34 Distribution ................................................................................................................. :34 Critical habitats ............................................................................................................39 Reproductive ecology .................................................... ..............................................45 Growth/ body size/maturation ....................................... ..............................................49 Activity patterns/ thermal ecology/ feeding ................... ..............................................50 Management Recommendations ................................................................................................54 General recommendations and conditions ..................... ..............................................54 Specific management recommendations ....................... ..............................................55 Monitoring Blanding's turtles ........................................ ..............................................58 Literature Cited ..........................................................................................................................61 Tables .. .......................................................................................................................................64 Appendices ................................................................................................................................133 Body temperatures of Blanding's Turtles ....................................................................133 Animal surveys ............................................................................................................145 Priority areas…………………………………………………………………………..149 Progress reports . ...........................................................................................................150 Photographs, captioned 1-42 ........................................................................................170 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Many people helped insure the success of this research through their personal, financial and administrative support. This project was funded by a generous grant from Minnesota National Guard, Camp Ripley Training Site and the Department of Defense Legacy Program Fund. We would like to thank Captain Ecklund and the entire Range Control staff, including but not limited to, Cpt. Rodewald, Sgt. Leisenheimer, Sgt. Magnan, Sgt. Christen, Sgt. Green, Sgt. Stewart, Sgt. Bergl, Sgt. Nelson and Sgt. Vonderhaar, for their full and continued support; with out which much of our work would have been impossible. The long hours of dirty fieldwork by our field assistants, Mark Hamernick and Mindy Norby, were invaluable. The additional work from Deb Greathouse, Scott Gerum, Brian Dezurik and Nathan DeShayes as well as Gary Ash and the volunteers from the Minnesota Herpetological Society were greatly appreciated. 'lank you to John Moriarity, Carol Hall and Justin Congdon for their insight, tinge, knowledge and expertise in this area of research Thank you to Dick Huemphner at ATS for designing and fixing our transmitters, Dick Buech, Bill Jensen, and Bob Seabloom for providing us with additional telemetry gear when we needed them and to Richard Piepgras, DVM, for help with surgical procedures land supplies. We would also like to thank the many Environmental Office staff for their time, knowledge, and advice including Sam Merrill, Bill Brown, Jay Brezinka, Pete Knutson, Gary Swenson and Ben Bertsch as well as Dave Hamernick for his help on contractual issues. We would like to give a special thank you to Marty Skoglund, Camp Ripley Training Site Environmental Office Supervisor and Pam Perry, Minnesota DNR Nongame Wildlife Specialist, for their time and support of this project. A special thank you also goes to Brenda Schill and Cheryl Schreiner, the Biology Department secretaries, who helped immensely with 'ND related problems while we were in the field. Our apologies to any one we missed. There were some many people that helped us that even though we tried it was impossible to remember everyone. 4 List of Table's . Table 1. Female Blandings turtle capture records for 1996-1997 Table 2. Male Blandings turtle capture records for 1996-1997 Table 3. Juvenile Blandings turtle capture records for 1996-1997 Table 4. Demographic breakdown of Blandings turtles Table 5. Estimated densities for each sex/ age class Table 6. Estimates of the XXXXXX3 Area population Table 7. A list of every turtle tracked Table 8. All wetlands utilized by, ten selected turtles Table 9. All wetlands utilized by all tracked turtles Table 10. Characteristics of overwintering wetlands Table 11. Daily movements for ten selected turtles. Table 12. Times and duration of movements Table 13. inter-marsh movements for ten selected turtles. Table 14. Number and percentage of days in inter-marsh movements.

Load more

  149

Copy Link