Tiny Tree‐Dwelling Turtles

Abstract

Photo 1. Female spotted turtle ABK, who nested successfully in June after spending the 2019–20 winter inside the swamp white oak tree (Quercus bicolor) with multiple males. ABK also spent the following winter inside the oak tree hibernaculum. Photo credit: Roy Nagle. Photo 2. Male spotted turtle NVX in a shallow, soft-bottomed rivulet formed by flooding from a beaver dam. Beavers expand spotted turtle foraging habitats and provide aquatic corridors for movements among seasonal habitats and to prospective habitats. During 2021, this male rendezvoused inside the swamp white oak tree with other spotted turtles intermittently from March 14 to April 12 and then moved away to forage among shallow wetlands fortified by beavers. Photo credit: Roy Nagle. Photo 3. Young (a) and older (b) male spotted turtles: (a) AKV is ~8 years old, with relatively distinct growth annuli and new growth indicated by light-colored line down the middle of plastron; (b) BKV is considerably older and has a visible injury to his left pectoral scute. Like most older, sexually mature males in the population, BKV spent much of March and early April 2021 inside the oak tree with several females. In contrast, juvenile AKV spent only four days inside the tree, in mid-April after the major mating period, apparently for shelter between foraging bouts rather than rendezvousing with potential mates. Photo credits: Roy Nagle. Photo 4. (a) Adult male spotted turtle AJW on the move following an autumn rain. This male spent two weeks inside the hollow oak tree during the latter half of March 2021, along with four females and six other males. AJW apparently has a particular affinity for female ABH, as he was captured alongside her on four different occasions entering or exiting the tree. (b) Female spotted turtle NYY, one of only four reproductive adult females in our study population. Most spotted turtle populations are small and fragmented, a primary reason the species is currently under review by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for federal listing under the Endangered Species Act. Photo credits: Travis Russell. Photo 5. One-year-old spotted turtle captured in a flooded meadow in June. Substantial new growth is indicated by light coloration between scutes. Like many long-lived turtles, spotted turtle populations are characterized by low fecundity and low recruitment of juveniles, which contrasts with high adult survivorship required for stable populations. Photo credit: Roy Nagle. These photographs illustrate turtles from the article, “Sheltering oak: spotted turtles in a tree” by Roy D. Nagle, Travis J. Russell, and Ryan J. Rimple published in Ecology. http://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.3585.