Turtle ID?

[wellington]

A new neighborhood is being built down the street with one of the only green belts left in the area, I'm sure several turtles live in that area, their habit is basically being destroyed and I'm sure this is happening all over my area because of growth. So what would you do, just leave it and say it knows what it's doing or move it to a better place that you know won't have this happen?

Turtles will spend their life time getting back to their home territory. Displacing it helps it for the moment, but not in the long run. If you've ever watch one that you moved to the side of the road that it was coming from, they almost always start heading again to where they were going before moved. I learned this a long time ago when moving a few off the road and puting them on the side they were coming from.

 

[cmacusa3]

Agree to disagree. I've moved turtles my 44 years of life and on tons of occasions I've found them in the area I've moved them too over several year span. If you move them off the side of a busy street to the direction they are going eventually they are going to turn around and go back to this so called home territory and possible get run over again. Everywhere in this city habits are being destroyed by construction these little guys don't stand a chance. I will continue to do what I think is best and others can do it their way.

 

[cmacusa3]

Guess the good news is when someone's pet tort or turtles gets away from the backyard (home territory) it will return.

 

[cmacusa3]

3rd one I've seen today

 

[cmacusa3]

just moved one, shall I go on

 

[mark1]

obviously in most cases it's best to just leave them alone ....in some cases relocation can be the only option like this maryland study ... personally i'd release her near where i found her , if there were water anywhere reasonably close that's where i'd put her ......
Responses, Movements, and Survival of
Relocated Box Turtles During Construction
of the Intercounty Connector Highway

https://www.roads.maryland.gov/OPPE...and survival of relocated box turtles ICC.pdf

Unexpected in the study was that no evi-
dence was found that the off-site turtles made a directional move-
ment back toward their original collecting locality, nor evidence that
they moved off the study site for any length of time. Instead, aside
from those off-site turtles that died from disease issues (see later),
virtually all of these turtles were able to overwinter successfully

The overall mortality rate among turtles
tracked for at least 1 year was 29.5% (31 of 105 turtles). The mortal-
ity rate of off-site turtles was 27.3% (9 of 33 turtles), compared with
34.4% (11 of 32 turtles) for on-site relocated turtles, and 27.5%
(11 of 40 turtles) for the native turtles. There are no significant
differences in mortality rate among the groups


Data from the research showed no statistically significant differences
in the percentage of turtles surviving among the three relocation
groups. In addition, although off-site turtles had larger home range
sizes than did turtles from the other groups, almost all of these turtles
remained on the study area. From this perspective (though limited), the
on-site relocation as practiced in this study would have to be deemed
a success, for it prevented large-scale mortality among the turtles

 

[Markw84]

We are talking about a turtle in CA the height of egg laying season. In CA turtles are quite rare. There is only one native aquatic turtle in all of California. At least 95% of all turtles turned into my vet friends are gravid females from mid May through mid June. Rarely any outside those times. I was not talking about turtles forced to look for new habitat out of habitat destruction

 

[mark1]

i agree with you

We are talking about a turtle in CA the height of egg laying season. In CA turtles are quite rare. There is only one native aquatic turtle in all of California. At least 95% of all turtles turned into my vet friends are gravid females from mid May through mid June. Rarely any outside those times. I was not talking about turtles forced to look for new habitat out of habitat destruction

i in no way disagree with anything you've said Markw ....... i simply put up the study for abramsmytankturtle , as relocating turtles is not a death sentence if properly done ...... with that said it may very well not be a death sentence to an individual turtle but it may be a death sentence to the population the turtle is being taken from ..... as far as the pond turtle , i'd imagine it's like our wood turtles and blanding's turtles , the loss of any individual may be the straw that finishes off a population ........ i think i understand your concern , ..... possibly the best thing to do is to contact a pond turtle conservation group or a wildlife guy , if it is a gravid female they may keep her until she lays her eggs and then return her ........ at the very least they'd put her in an appropriate area .........

 

[cmacusa3]

I get what your saying and do I move everyone I find to the country...No I don't... nor do I take them all and release on my land...I have over 200 acres of prime turtle paradise (woods and creeks) but I don't put everyone of them there. I live in an area that I know people run them over for sport and it makes me do all I can.

 

[Tom]

Our turtle in this thread got a nice soak and a drink, and then got put right back where he/she started. It is a nice heavily wooded area and there is no danger of road hockey since this is a very large private ranch. None of the people using the dirt rods on this ranch will be running over any wildlife.

Personally I intend to go up there and see if I can find where it went and what its doing. I will hike around the hills a bit and see if I can find any sort of water source up there at all. Right now I know of nothing. It is miles of rough uninhabited terrain to the next house or structure, so this can't be an escaped pet...

 

[mark1]

I get what your saying and do I move everyone I find to the country...No I don't... nor do I take them all and release on my land...I have over 200 acres of prime turtle paradise (woods and creeks) but I don't put everyone of them there. I live in an area that I know people run them over for sport and it makes me do all I can.

if the past is any prediction of the future i think your 200 acres and you may be a great asset to these turtles ............i may be mistaken , but i believe most native turtles are doomed in the wild with the exception of small protected populations on private and federally protected land ..... i may be mistaken but from what i've seen so far , it sure makes it appear inevitable ............ i've fish the tributary rivers of lake erie for the last 50yrs , the decline in wildlife and wild areas is mind boggling .....

 

[Markw84]

i agree with you

i in no way disagree with anything you've said Markw ....... i simply put up the study for abramsmytankturtle , as relocating turtles is not a death sentence if properly done ...... with that said it may very well not be a death sentence to an individual turtle but it may be a death sentence to the population the turtle is being taken from ..... as far as the pond turtle , i'd imagine it's like our wood turtles and blanding's turtles , the loss of any individual may be the straw that finishes off a population ........ i think i understand your concern , ..... possibly the best thing to do is to contact a pond turtle conservation group or a wildlife guy , if it is a gravid female they may keep her until she lays her eggs and then return her ........ at the very least they'd put her in an appropriate area .........

I actually have seen similar results but take the conclusion differently...

In trying to establish some turtle in a few friends huge ranches with permanent ponds, I found that turtles relocated early and mid year were constantly found wandering far from the ponds trying to find new areas or their way back " home"

However, when we relocated some in fall when they were slowing down, close to hibernation / brumation, the turtles were not so active and went into brumation. Coming out in spring a much larger percent stayed put in their new homes

So, again, this time of year I would question the wisdom of relocation unless you know it a displacement due to habitat destruction

Just my thoughts...

 

[Anthony P]

@Tom Are you kidding with that damn bear!!!!!!!!!!!!!??????? OMGG! I'm so jealous...

Nice find on the Actinemys, too. That's a beautiful turtle. One of the most under-rated species in the US.

 

[Tom]

@Tom Are you kidding with that damn bear!!!!!!!!!!!!!??????? OMGG! I'm so jealous...

Nice find on the Actinemys, too. That's a beautiful turtle. One of the most under-rated species in the US.

You should be jealous. That is one good bear. We had him eating cookies out of Jay Leno's mouth a few years ago. I am privileged that my buddy lets me hang around him like that. Every time I get to go on a bear walk I feel like I'm getting away with something. Very special.

About the turtle: There must be a little population of them out there on his property, but we can't figure out where they would find a water source. There are also a ton of ravens out there, so I really worry about any babies that might hatch. Unlike the sulcatas in Africa, I can go study these guys as much as I want and they are on very private property, so nobody can mess with them.

 

[Blakem]

So many interesting conversations in this thread! Bears and unique turtles. Never thought I'd read a thread on this.