Capture Effort, Rate, Demographics, and Potential for Disease Transmission in Wild Eastern Box Turtles (Terrapene carolina carolina) Captured through Canine Directed Searches

摘要

The Eastern Box Turtle (EBT, Terrapene carolina carolina) is a small terrestrial, long-lived turtle (Kimble et al. 2014). Habitat of the EBT includes tidal wetlands, meadows, and deciduous forests. Their home range may extend into adjacent habitats, which include fields, pastures, suburban areas, ponds, and streams (COSEWIC 2014). Because of their long lifespan and large home range (Currylow et al. 2012), EBTs are proposed to be sentinels of ecosystem health (Lloyd et al. 2016). The EBT is listed as Vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (van Dijk 2013) due to many factors including human-induced environmental damage, such as habitat loss and fragmentation, traffic mortality, legal or illegal collection for personal use, cutting or mowing, prescribed burns, and unnaturally high predation on eggs, hatchlings, or juveniles (Budischak et al. 2006; Currylow et al. 2011; Nazdrowicz et al. 2008; Swarth and Hagood 2004).