Markus Auer mainly
Markus Auer mainly exotic chelonians for housing them in generously sized outdoor enclosures and indoor terraria. He spends many hours of his spare time monitoring several Wood Turtle populations. Having come to know his subjects intimately, he is by now able to locate many individuals with a precision of only a few metres even without using telemetry technology. This is by no means an easy feat in spite of the home fidelity of the turtles, considering the tall vegetation in summer. Wood Turtles require a mosaic of various microhabitats and move through large home ranges, but also have favourite places where they can be found over and again. They will hibernate in groups in suitable spots in the flowing water bodies, typically selecting for this purpose pools with water depths of up to 1 m below overhanging vegetation. Spring Fig. 15. John Foley searching for a radio-collared Wood Turtle. then sees them exit the water and take on a rather terrestrial ecology in the surrounding forests and meadows where they will stay until autumn and return to stagnant and, mainly, flowing waters only rarely and briefly for the purpose of cooling down and taking in water. In peak summer, they can thus be encountered in the 1.5-2 m tall shrub vegetation near water bodies. Their common name, Wood Turtle, is therefore entirely fitting here as well. Their migratory habits between the various habitats in streams, forests, floodplains and shrublands unfortunately also renders them vulnerable to the dangers on roads. The females will deposit their eggs above the high water line in graveland sandbanks on the edges of the flowing water bodies or bury them in sandy slopes vegetated sparsely with bushes and shrubs. Stands of Canadian goldenrod (Solidago canadensis), a plant introduced to our flora as well, and willow herb (Epilobium) could be marvelled at here. As many of the turtle nests will be plundered by various mammal species, at least some of them had been protected with wire baskets. Another risk arises from neophytes, i.e., invasive alien plants. As a result of the dynamic action of the water in the course of the year, sand- and gravelbanks that make for suitable nesting sites are created along the banks, but these will often be colonised rapidly by an introduced and fast-growing species of mugwort (Artemisia). The multitude of leaves and stalks of these plants will then cast too much shade on the sand, and their stalks and roots impede the turtles when they try to excavate their nest pits. Juvenile Wood Turtles have very secretive habits during their first year of life, and even John spotted the one or the other only on very rare occasions. When he did, it was always in the shallow water at the banks of the streams where the current was calm. After tracking the radio signals from two specimens along a section of the forest stream for about an hour without locating them, we exited the forest and walked upstream along sandy banks and past fairly slow-flowing portions with deep pools towards a large clearing adjacent to a southwest-facing slope. The water body was lined with hygrophilous 12 RADIATA 26 (2), 2017
In Search of Chelonians in Connecticut and New York State Fig. 16. A deep section of the stream with overhanging vegetation, where several Wood Turtles have been recorded hibernating. Fig. 17. A sandbank at the edge of the stream, with new growth of Artemisia visible on the left-hand side. shrubs such as rush, cattail, purple loosestrife (which is an introduced invasive species from Europe and Asia), nettles, and leather flowers. It was under this “vegetation cover” that we eventually found our first Wood Turtle around noon, after following the strong transponder signal for about 10 minutes and searching an area of about 10×10 m. The turtle was resting under the fairly thick plant cover. Its mouth was smeared with snail mucus, which, according to John, is a common sight here in spring and summer. The animals shift their activity to the morning and evening hours in summer and are believed to be less active in general. After this first highlight of our trip to the US, we followed another telemetry signal in a quest to track down “Paris” (named after Paris Hilton). Paris was a young and particularly light orange coloured female Wood Turtle that was supposed to live nearby. The stream was not shaded by trees here for a stretch of about 400 m, but densely flanked by shrubs along its banks. And indeed, we discovered Paris in a marshy spot under cattails and purple loosestrife some 3 m from the bank, resting on the damp soil with her eyes open and being quite alert. She turned out to be more temperamental and defied our attempts to take a good photograph – successfully so and proving her status of a diva… RADIATA 26 (2), 2017 13
