JSTOR Articles & Useful Websites
Jstors:
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Title: Population Structure of Florida Box Turtles (Terrapene carolina bauri) at the Southernmost Limit of Their Range
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This paper from JSTOR mainly gives strong information on the population structure of box turtles. The paper also provides information on how to tell apart a female box turtle from a male box turtle. Males are usually larger than females, and usually have bright, distinctive, red eyes. Some areas in the world where box turtles would usually migrate to do not have enough space or capacity for a box turtle habitat to exist, which makes it difficult for box turtles to survive through migration. All of the information provided in this paper will serve as a great source for our group as we progress in this project.
In this paper provided by JSTOR, an in-depth description of all things box turtles is given to the reader. While reading, I learned that for the most part, box turtles are found in the eastern states of the United States. I also learned that the box turtle is given its name for its ability to pull in its head, feet, and tail under its shell for protection. Box turtles live in river bottoms, or moist forests, however they are not aquatic. This paper in particular gives the do’s and don’t’s of how to house a box turtle, which will be very beneficial as our group takes on this project. This paper serves as a great source for our group due to the specific information provided on the lifestyle, habitats, and background of box turtles, in addition to helpful information for raising a box turtle.
I find it interesting how the article begins with the declining population of box turtles. I was unaware of the extreme impact humans and especially motor vehicles have had on box turtles throughout the years. Bill Belzer’s point in writing this is to educate people on box turtles, especially Eastern box turtles because he believes the more people who understand the more who will preserve, which I completely agree with. I learned that a box turtle can only lay 3 to 4 eggs a year, which surprised me since sea turtles can lay so much more. It amazed me even more that once the eggs are hatched it is extremely difficult for them to survive. I find this article reliable since Bill Belzer had a PhD and is a professor of Biology at Clarion University. This article was helpful in learning the youth of box turtles and what dangers they face.
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Hibernation in the Eastern Box Turtle, Terrapene c. carolina explains the hibernations patterns of the eastern box turtle. It was published through the Department of Zoology at Miami University. I found out that box turtles will burrow beneath piles of leaves in a woodland environment to protect themselves from the harsh winters. It was interesting to find out that though many box turtles are capable of digging large holes to better protect themselves during the winter, they often settle for only displacing a small amount of dirt for their burrow. I found this paper to be particularly useful on the second page when I gave a diagram of a turtle burrow. Additionally, the scholars provided there own data recovered from a study on hibernation and included their conclusions and analysis on the findings.
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Title: Population Ecology of the Eastern Box Turtle in a Fragmented Landscape
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I found Population Ecology of the Eastern Box Turtle in a Fragmented Landscape to be particularly helpful because it was a study on the population of box turtles in various different habitats. Three different scholars from the Department of Entomology at the University of Delaware came together to carry out this study. The strengths of this paper include analyzing the population of box turtles in four different fragmented habitats in Delaware. The woodland areas had varying levels of human disturbance that were noted in the paper. Another strength of this study is that it took place over two years. The scholars were very methodical in the gathering of data. They would hand capture all turtles and upon capture the turtles were sexed, aged, marked and released. Over the two years, they recorded 892 captures of 268 different box turtles to complete their study.
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Title: Outdoor Adventures: Tracking Eastern Box Turtles
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This article was made to inform readers of general facts about Eastern box turtles and how to track them. Steps and detailed pictures are provided to explain the process of tracking an Eastern box turtle, and puts emphasis on how difficult it can be at times. Even a sample data survey sheet is provided for helping future students record their data. I strongly believe the tips, especially the data survey sheet, will be helpful for our group throughout this experiment. It amazed me to learn how much scientists believe box turtles are on a decline and how much money EPA and universities have given these researchers to allow them to conduct the turtle-tracking trials. This article was informative due to its detailed steps and various figures to provide extra details for the experiment, such as suggested supplies and prices.
Websites:
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I found Eastern Box Turtle on Herper’s Guide to be helpful because it gave a basic overview of the box turtle. The site went into detail on ways to tell between the male and female box turtles based on certain distinguishable characteristics. The strengths of this website also include the introduction into box turtle habitat, reproduction, general behavior, and diet. While reading the page I learned a lot about box turtles that I previously hadn’t known.
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The article Eastern Box Turtle on Austin’s Turtle Page was able to provide me with in depth information on box turtles that I previously didn’t know. The page’s strengths include describing the diet of both wild and captive box turtles in a way of contrasting the two. It also explained that just like other reptiles, box turtles can carry salmonella and precautionary measures should be taken before handling any box turtle. One other area that I found interesting that I hadn’t discovered in my previous research was the normal living conditions box turtles are usually found in such as typical humidity and temperature.
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Box Turtles was written two years ago by Melissa Kaplan and gives the overall habits of American box turtles and how box turtles react as pets. I found it especially interesting how she explains that box turtles can not eat when they are cold and often choose not to eat when under stress or scared. I find this website informative because it describes a variety of necessities for the turtles and is organized by the species of the box turtle. This website explains the proper environment to keep box turtles, mainly pets, in, such as two heat sources, certain soil, and a variety of temperatures depending on the species. I also really enjoy this website, because she makes sure to include at the end how much she recommends not to buy a box turtle to help preserve the natural environment.
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This website explains box turtles’ hibernation patterns, diets, including vegetation and small insects, and common habits of wild box turtles and pet box turtles. I was interested to read that box turtles range from 6 to 8 inches, and some times even more. I also learned on this website that box turtles need to hibernate 3 to 5 months throughout the year due to climates with a wide range of temperatures, which is something I never knew before. It amazed me to read that during hibernation is a common time for turtles deaths. This website also includes a video on how to take care of a box turtle, which I feel makes the website more informative and interesting. The video also shows what a male ornate box turtle looks like and points out what physical characteristics differentiates a male and female box turtle. I believe this will be a good website to go back to throughout the box turtle experiment.
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Title: North American Box Turtle
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This website, North American Box Turtles, narrows the study of box turtles down to just the turtles living in North America. It goes into the depths of the turtle’s diets. For example, it provides a chart displaying types of bugs and animal matter and vegetable matter: all serving as food for the box turtle. I enjoyed reading through this website a little more because it provided real specifics on box turtles. I learned that there are legal issues with box turtles, which I have never known before. I think this website will be really helpful as we go along in our box turtle study.
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Title: Box Turtles
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This website in particular gives the reader specific insight into different species, habitats, and general background information on box turtles. Box Turtles provides thorough information on the behavior of box turtles, health and diets of box turtles, a box turtle’s ability to be a pet, and much more. I really enjoyed reading about the different types of box turtles. I learned that they can be found in numerous locations around the world. There is even such a thing as an Asian box turtle. This website informs the reader that box turtles are mainly found in low, wet areas. Though not aquatic animals, box turtles love moist areas near bodies of water or woods. To paraphrase, this website gives almost all necessary information one would need to complete a study on box turtles.
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Title: North American Box Turtle
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This website helped us when creating our reintroduction and management plan for Sweetwater Creek state park. It introduced us to prior reintroduction processes and gave us new term used during the management process. Prior to this article we had no idea how much effort and the steps it took to reintroduce a species to an area.
Title: Do Roads Reduce Painted Turtle Populations?
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This article was used to demonstrate the impact habitat fragmentation has on box turtle population. More specifically, this article focused on patch fragmentation. Patch fragmentation occurs when certain species are separated into patches with matrices of human activity in between. Lenore Fahrig completed this study and came to the conclusion that as long as patch fragmentation occurs, box turtle population will decrease significantly throughout the years.
Title: Eastern Box Turtle (Terrapene carolina carolina) Movements in a Fragmented Landscape
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This source provided insight into how fragmentation affects the movement of box turtles overall. This source also allowed for us to examine how habitat fragmentation has an impact on the sex of turtles and how seasons have an affect on turtle movement. During cooler months, females are less motivated to move around and search for places to reproduce. In the spring months, they are much more motivated to search for partners and places to lay their eggs. Overall, this source was very beneficial in examining the effects of habitat fragmentation and how different times of the year affect different sexes of box turtles.
Title: Home Range and Philopatry in the Ornate Box Turtle, Terrapene ornata ornata, in Iowa
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This source was used to compare Lovett's home range sizes with another respectable study. Neil P. Bernstein along with other researcher did a study on home range and philopatry of box turtles in Iowa and got results similar to ours on males and females having similar sized home ranges. We also gained information on why female home ranges are greater in the spring than summer, which is due to mating and nesting patterns.
Title: Home Range and Habitat Use Patterns of Eastern Box Turtles (Terrapene Carolina Carolina) on Prudence Island, Rhode Island
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We used this source in order to contrast the home ranges of Eastern box turtles on the Lovett Campus with Eastern box turtles in Rhode Island. We learned that Lovett's average home range for box turtles is generally higher, which came as a surprise. This source allowed for us to determine the necessities in order for a turtle to survive within a specific home range. Overall, this source was very useful and interesting to learn how different areas diff from Lovett's box turtle habitat.