Fire Ecology of the Florida Box Turtle (Terrapene Carolina BauriTaylor) in Pine Rockland Forests of the Lower Florida Keys

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Eastern box turtles (Terrapene Carolina) inhabit many fire-prone habitats in eastern North America and frequently succumb to natural and anthropogenic fires. However, little is known about the fire ecology of box turtles, and population-level effects of burning have yet to be quantified. We studied the effect of prescribed burns on a population of Florida box turtles (T. Carolina bauri) inhabiting National Key Deer Wildlife Refuge, Big Pine Key, Florida. A total of 27.4 ha were burned during seven prescribed fires (1998 to 2000). We found 14 fire-killed box turtles after four wet season burns (1.04 turtles/ha); no mortality was observed following three dry season burns. Multiple regression analysis indicated that season of burning had a significant effect on the occurrence of box turtle mortality. The effect of char height (used as a surrogate measure of fire intensity in our model) was only marginally significant. Our results suggested that between 10.2% and 21.6% of box turtles per ha perished...