First observations on some aspects on the natural history of European pond turtles Emys orbicularis in Slovenia

Abstract

AbstractIn Slovenia not much is known about the European pond turtle (Emys orbicularis) and its habitat use. The purpose of this work was to determine age structure of the Draga pri Igu ponds population using the capture-mark-recapture method. For this purpose, we caught and marked 34 individuals and scored their age, gender and 12 morphometric characters. Turtles in the Draga pri Igu ponds became active in the period of late February to early March. Hibernation started around the second half of October to the beginning of November. Mating took place directly after hibernation. In April, individuals migrated from the hibernation (pond named “Veliki pond”) to the mating ground (“part of Srednji pond”). The preferred egg laying place of the turtles is on the east side of “Veliki pond”, where also plundered nests were recorded. Using radio telemetry, the hibernation site was located on the east side of the pond “Veliki pond”. The mean SCL of 4 females was 183 ± 13.08; of 26 males, 137.89 ± 9.89; and 76.88 ± 1.25 of 2 subadult turtles, respectively. Almost half of all individuals were old adults.