Comparison of harvested and nonharvested painted turtle populations

Comparison of harvested and nonharvested painted turtle populations

Painted turtles (Chrysemys picta) are commercially harvested in large numbers in Minnesota for sale to biological supply companies and the pet trade. We investigated the possible effects of this harvest by comparing size, demography, and catch rates of painted turtles in 12 harvested and 10 nonharvested painted turtle populations in 2001 and 2002. We correlated turtle catch rates to harvest sta...

Do Roads Reduce Painted Turtle (Chrysemys picta) Populations?

Road mortality is thought to be a leading cause of turtle population decline. However, empirical evidence of the direct negative effects of road mortality on turtle population abundance is lacking. The purpose of this study was to provide a strong test of the prediction that roads reduce turtle population abundance. While controlling for potentially confounding variables, we compared relative a...

Western Painted Turtle (Chrysemys picta bellii)

Egg incubation and collection of painted turtle embryos.

This protocol describes how to incubate painted turtle eggs and collect embryos for gene expression analysis. The same basic protocol can be used to incubate eggs and collect embryos from other turtle species by modifying the incubation temperature to suit the particular developmental needs of each species.

Management of Harvested Wildlife Populations

Humans have been harvesting wild populations for the entire extent of human history. In most early human societies, a successful hunt not only fed one’s family, but also brought respect from both family and community (Bolen and Robinson 2002). Although most North Americas and western Europeans today acquire their food that was planted, harvested, and processed by someone else, hunting and harve...