Saving the Eastern Box Turtle

Pinch set out to do what few of her friends have ever done. 目标确定了. 旅程 from the top of the ridge, down to the stream, cross over the creek and reach the grassy landing in the woods. Along the way, she survived heavy rains and encountered dangerous predators such as snakes, dogs, birds, raccoons, cats and humans. 她的同行们 will typically travel within a five-foot range in a two-week time period. 然而,在 the same amount of time, Pinch travelled an impressive quarter-mile.

Pinch, an Eastern box turtle, was affectionately named by Dr. 黛安·戴教授 of biology in the College of 艺术 and Sciences. Day shared it was likely that as Pinch was growing, something had been wrapped around her such as plastic packaging from 六罐装汽水. This may have caused the “pinched” area on her shell.

Day’s interest in turtles started early on when she lived near a wooded area where she would find them and bring them home as a child. As an accomplished researcher, she has dedicated much of her investigation to the box turtle.

Like Pinch, Day is on her own journey—a mission to save the box turtles.

一个古老的物种

Turtles are one of the oldest reptile groups, more ancient than snakes or crocodilians, and many 物种 are highly endangered. Box turtles, of the genus Terrapene carolina carolina, are native to North America and are known for their dome-shaped, carapace-patterned shells that are yellow and orange in color. 他们是 not endangered, however the 物种 is classified as vulnerable.

“I was fascinated with the fact that they carry their homes on their backs. 他们有 been around for over 260 million years virtually unchanged,” Day says. “这意味着 they have the perfect form—or had the perfect form until humans came along. 他们是 如此之大. 他们有 changed so little over millions and millions of years.”

Biomonitoring the environment

Partnering with the Southern Conservation Trust, a community land trust in Fayette County, Georgia, Day has spent nearly five years researching this protected 物种 and how to preserve their population.

“Turtles represent the health of the environment. They’re considered an indicator 物种. So if they are doing well and maintaining their population or their population is growing, then we know we have a healthy environment. But when we start seeing declines in their numbers, then we have a problem.”

“I was fascinated with the fact that they carry their homes on their backs. 他们有 been around for over 260 million years virtually unchanged.”

As an indicator 物种, box turtles have the ability to biomonitor their environments, a biological measure of environmental impact.

“Diseases typically don’t really bother them. They can survive infections that most animals can’t,” Day explains. “So they have a very good immune system. 如果是的话 disappearing in numbers then that means that other animals are probably disappearing 也.”

合作研究

Working with her students, Day collects DNA to understand relationships between the turtles and to investigate why approximately 34 percent of 海龟 collected have 在壳上打孔. It is unclear what the reason for this is, whether it is a virus, a bacteria or a mutation.

To track 海龟, their shells are marked with a unique code so they can be distinguished 来自其他海龟. Radio transmitters are also attached so researchers can find their exact GPS coordinates even if they are hibernating. Some have been tracked for up 到现在已经八年了.

Shaneil Johnson is also a self-proclaimed turtle enthusiast and biology major at Clayton 状态. She works with Day collecting and duplicating DNA to find relationships between 海龟. Johnson has dreams of pursuing her masters in biomedical sciences after graduation and eventually working in a forensics lab. She believes her experience researching the box turtles will contribute to her future success.

“I am learning 很多 with this research,” says Johnson. “I didn’t really know about their home range or how you could tell they were related. I thought [their home range] 只是一个小区域吗. People think that turtles are so slow but they do travel 很多.”

Progress with each small step

In her efforts to preserve the box turtles, Day has also launched a head start program. Hatchlings are cared for and kept for two to three years until their shells are hard enough so that most predators can’t eat them. Then they are released in a two-phase 过程.

The soft release is where they are in a pen so they can become acclimated to the environment and then they are released into the wild. This helps to increase their chances for 生存.

Day’s work to save the Eastern box turtle is far from finished, but as they say—slow 稳扎稳打赢得比赛.

 

读 更多的故事 从这个问题出发