Box turtles M14 to M23

Turtle M14 (Male), Dead, was a small (375 gr, 11.7cm CL) male originally found in the "Tank Road Meeting Area" on 6/29/10 near M13 (male). He had a comparately small primary activity area (about 5 acres) for the first few years of tracking, but that expanded dramatically in 2014.

GPS distance tracked:

0.9 miles in 2010, (4 months), 48 pts

1.2 miles in 2011, 46 pts

1.0 miles in 2012, 43 pts

1.1 miles in 2013, 54 pts

2.2 miles in 2014, 77 pts

1.2 miles in 2015, 54 pts

1.6 miles in 2016, 71 pts

0.9 miles in 2017, (2.5 months), 22 pts

Turtle M15, (Male) Dead, a large (520 gram) old male, was found mating with M4 on 5/15/11 on the power line ROW, M4's normal activity area. In 2011 he spent the majority of his time on the ROW/forest edge on a ROW branch line maintained regularly in an early successional state. The main power line ROW, being on private property, is maintained by "scalping" it of vegetation (see photo). M15 traveled this cleared steep ROW a number of times through the boulders, over the ridgetop, across the hiking trail, and into the woods....each time returning to his ROW/edge home after only a few days.

GPS distance tracked:

2.2 miles in 2011, 53 pts

2.4 miles in 2012, 60 pts

3.9 miles in 2013, 97 pts

2.7 miles in 2014, 76 pts

2.6 miles in 2015, 79 pts

2.2 miles in 2016, 54 pts

2.4 miles in 2017, 68 pts

2.1 miles in 2018, 51 pts

1.1 miles in 2019, 20 pts (3 months) dead on road

The GPS route maps would seem to indicate that M15 travels THROUGH the house development, but he has never been observed doing so. Tracking and thread trailing suggest that he travels primarily through the woods, skirting around the house site.

In 2018, M15 was found many times during the season, meeting and mating with other residents within and nearby the new manmade Cabin Meeting Area, close by the cabin site. M15 was killed while crossing the road 7/6/19.

Turtle M17 (Transient) has a page of his own: "M17 Superturtle". Click here to go to this transient turtle's page and map.

Turtle M18 (Male) is the largest (586 gram) and probably the oldest male currently in this study, and was found while mating with turtle M11 on 9/19/11. GPS distance tracked:

0.3 miles in 2011, 2 months, 10 pts

1.8 miles in 2012, 47 pts

1.7 miles in 2013, 50 pts

1.8 miles in 2014, 62 pts

2.2 miles in 2015, 59 pts

1.6 miles in 2016, 42 pts

1.8 miles in 2017, 49 pts

0.2 miles in 2018, 3 weeks, 7 pts

1.2 miles in 2019, 29 pts

1.1 miles in 2020, 18 pts

0.9 miles in 2021, 20 pts

0.9 miles in 2022, 28 pts

M18 is primarily a meadow resident, but hibernates at the wood's edge, in the meadow in a small stand of trees, and only occassionally in the woods away from the meadow. In 2018 he was lost for most of the season when he moved from his hibernaton site with a bad transmitter, and was found later in the meadow during mating.

During mowing of the meadow, he is moved into the woods for the duration and released at his original collection site. He returns on his own to the meadow every time.

Turtle M19, (Male) Dead was a 435 gr male found on 10/10/11 meeting with M15 (male) at the ROW/forest edge. He was killed at the edge of the road on 9/12/18 by a vehicle after being tracked for 23.4 GPS miles over 8 seasons.

GPS distance tracked;

0.3 miles in 2011, (1 month), 5 points

2.8 miles in 2012, 73 pts

3.8 miles in 2013, 113 pts

4.4 miles in 2014, 82 pts

3.5 miles in 2015, 58 pts

3.2 miles in 2016, 88 pts

2.4 miles in 2017, 68 pts

3.0 miles in 2018, (5 1/2 months), 48 points

M19 was among the longest distance travelers in this population. Although the route photos might suggest that he purposely avoided the new cabin construction site, instead he often traveled the very top of the ridge, which has few convienent travel routes (other than the ROW) down onto the house sites' gentle slope. In 2018, M19 traveled into and through the new man-made meeting area near the cabin site.

Turtle M19 mated with M38, M1, and M4, and met with M20(M), M45(M) (transients) and M27(M) (maybe an introduction), after traveling long distance, straight-line routes from his previous location. M19 hibernated in exactly the same stump hole nearly every year.

Turtle M16, (Male) Dead was an old, worn 345 gr. male found mating with turtle M1 (female) in 2011 at one of the "meeting areas" where I have found other turtles including the re-finding of M6 (female) in 2011. M16 was lost prior to hibernation in 2011, but re-found on 6/10/12, but again lost. He was re-found again on 6/11/14 in the same location, mating with M6. He was tracked the entire season of 2015, and travelled 2.2 GPS miles that year.

Emergence in 2016 was much earlier than observed in the past, and in July of 2016, M16 was found dead, with no apparent trauma, in a small seep in a ravine where he was known to spend time in the past.

M16 was observed mating a number of times always at the ROW corner on top of the ridge, with M1 and M6 who traveled long distances up-slope to meet and mate. He also met with several males in the ROW and probably mated with M24 occassionaly.

Turtles M14 to M23

(Back to turtles M6 through M13)

(Turtles M24 through M31)

On private lands, power line ROW's are usually scalped to bare soil and rock during maintenance. Herbicides are used to control vegetation on private lands, but are not generally allowed on federal lands. ROW's are not barriers to most wildlife (except maybe salamanders), but instead create "forest edge" habitat.

A Relic Population Doomed To Extinction?

M14 2012

M18 2012

M19 2012 2.8 miles

Turtle M20 (M) 375 gr was found on 5/1/12, traveled 1.3 GPS miles in 2012 and 1.2 miles in 2013. He was found meeting with turtle M19 (male) and was found traveling close to several other turtles over the course of summer 2012. M20 crossed the road on 8/30/12 and met with turtle M18 (male) the following day in a location just outside M18's normal activity area. M20 then proceded upslope in the woods to the highest point on the ridgetop (elevation 3480 ft) and hibernated nearby.

Turtle M20 is missing one front limb.

M20 2012

Turtle M20 (M). This map shows both his 2012 travels (red line) and 2013 travels (yellow line) of 2.5 total miles.

M20 was found in 2012 at an elevation of 2800 ft, traveled to 3480 ft over the course of the summer, hibernated there, and in 2013 traveled over the ridge-top, and down the other side to an elevation of 2800 ft near a busy state highway. M20 finally crossed the highway, continued north, and hibernated in a sheltered rhodedenron thicket. M20 was lost a day after emergence when he lost his transmitter and was never re-found dispite several area searches.

M21 2012 1.0 miles

M21 2013 2.2 miles

Turtle M21, (Male) was found on 5/26/12 meeting with turtle M3 (male), and mating with turtle M24 (female) on 9/22/12. All three turtles hibernated close to each other, at the ROW edge under pines.

GPS distance tracked:

1.0 miles in 2012, 35 pts (4 1/2 months)

2.2 miles in 2013, 44 pts

2.2 miles in 2014, 46 pts

2.2 miles in 2015, 49 pts

1.5 miles in 2016, 46 pts

2.2 miles in 2017, 32 pts

0.4 miles in 2018, 6 pts, (2 months)

M21's travel behavior is unusual, as he travels mostly close to or within a power line ROW parallel to a busy roadway and returns using the same route almost every season. He has never been observed crossing the road, but has been found close to (within 10 feet) of the road's edge on a few of occassions.

A few season's travels found him in an old clearcut area of relatively low bio-diversity, where he hibernated one winter. M21 was lost early in 2018, and has not yet been re-found. The route photos are each approximately 965 acres.

Turtle M22 (F) 470 gr, was found on 6/19/12 mating with turtle M15 (male) near the private house site, and was tracked 1.3 miles before being lost on 7/22/12.

She was never subsequently re-found as I hoped (and expected).

M22 2012

M23 2012

Turtle M23 (F) 420 gr, was found on 6/28/12 while mating with turtle M18 (male) under heavy brush cover, and was lost after only 3 locations despite having both radio and thread.

M23 has not been re-found since her 2012 disappearence.

M14 2014

M16 2014

M18 2014

M21 2014 2.2 miles

Turtle M15

Turtle M16

Turtle M18

Turtle M19

Turtle M20

Turtle M21

Green Dot = Emergence, Red Dot = Hibernation, Blue Dot = NEW FIND, White Dot = Dead

Turtle M14

M21 2015 2.2 miles

M16 2015

M14 2015

M18 2015

M19 2014 4.4 miles

M19 2013 3.8 miles

M15 2011 2.2 miles

M15 2012 2.4 miles

M15 2013 3.9 miles

M15 2014 2.7 miles

M15 2015 2.6 miles

M16 All Years 2011 to 2016

M16 2016

Each aerial photo to the left is 317.6 acres or 128.5 hectares in size (or about 3935 x 3525 feet)

M18 2016

M21 2016 1.5 miles

M14 2016

M15 2016 2.2 miles

In mid-July 2014, turtle M14 left his primary activity area where he had been tracked for 4 seasons, crossed the road and traveled the ridge top eventually finding a small shallow creek in the highway ditch where he soaked from August 8th until September 16th. He traveled back, almost to his home area, and turned around and was found soaking in the edge of a large pond from Sept 21st until October 9th when he moved into the woods nearby and hibernated. In 2016 he crossed the road, was nearly crushed by a vehicle, and returned to his original primary activity area and hibernated there in November.

During the 2017 season he spent the first part of the season in his old activity area but on 6/2/17 he decided to travel a long route, crossing the road into the meadow near the residents there. On 7/7/17 as the meadow was being mowed, M14 was crushed and killed by a tractor tire.