Eastern Box turtle 2008 Hibernation

2008 Summer Season and Hibernation

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Turtle M1 and M2 hibernation site locations. Both were found crossing the road in the summer of 2008 and tracked into hibernaton in the fall, and out again in the spring of 2009. The M1 site was in a sheltered flat area, the M2 site near the top of the ridge, north facing slightly, very deep, and moderatly sheltered.

The 70+ degree temperature highs spikes in the chart data are errors due to placement of the temperature logger sensors that recorded false readings as sunflecks or direct sunlight hit the sensor. This area does experience 60's and higher temperatures during the winter months but these spikes are likely anomolies. Subsequent years temperature logging corrected these types of placement errors.

Daily low air temperatures logged are accurate, as are soil day and night temperatures.

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Eastern Box Turtle

High Elevation Study

Hibernation soil, air, and iButton temperature data and charts in Excel format for all sites available here

This was the first season for the study of this local Eastern Box turtle population. A number of Box turtles had been seen crossing the road and some dead from car traffic close to this location in previous years, so this was suspected to be a "hot spot" for a resident turtle popularion. Turtle M1(F) was found early in the morning on 7/5/08 by a maintenance employee, while crossing the road, likely returning from a nesting forray. She was radio tagged and released and was tracked for the remainder of the season into hibernation, and is still being tracked in 2021.

Turtle M2(M) was found 9/29/08 also crossing the road, was radio tagged and tracked the remainder of the season into hibernation on 11/2/08. Unfortunatly, M2 was killed intentionally by a National Park Service employee in 2009, while crossing the road returning from a mating trip.

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M1(female) is a very old, large (560 gr) female that was found crossing the road on 7/5/08, rado tagged, and released. M1 was tracked 0.9 GPS miles in 2008 (3 months) into hibernation.

M2(male) a middle aged, medium size (410gr 14.1cm CL) male was found 9/29/08 while crossing the road, and was tracked 0.3 miles in 2008 into hibernation.

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