Cold-Tolerance of Hatchling Painted Turtles (Chrysemys picta bellii) from the Southern Limit of Distribution
نویسندگان
چکیده
Painted turtles (Chrysemys picta) have a natural history unlike that of other chelonians from the northern United States and southern Canada. Although neonates of other freshwater turtles usually emerge from their subterranean nests in late summer or autumn and move to nearby marshes, lakes, or streams to spend their first winter, hatchling painted turtles typically remain inside their shallow (8–14 cm) nests throughout their first winter and do not emerge above ground until the following spring (Ernst et al., 1994). This behavior commonly causes neonatal painted turtles from Nebraska (Packard, 1997; Packard et al., 1997a), northern Illinois (Weisrock and Janzen, 1999), and New Jersey (DePari, 1996) northward to the limit of distribution in southern Canada (Storey et al., 1988)
منابع مشابه
Behavioral responses of hatchling painted turtles (Chrysemys picta ) and snapping turtles (Chelydra serpentina ) at subzero temperatures
We monitored behavioral responses of cold-acclimated hatchling painted turtles (Chrysemys picta ) indigenous to Nebraska and hatchling snapping turtles (Chelydra serpentina ) indigenous to Nebraska and Arkansas during cooling (0.18C/min) to temperatures as low as ÿ198C. All turtles made exploratory movements during cooling and locomotion occurred at temperatures as low as ÿ2 to ÿ48C, but C. pic...
متن کاملThe Overwintering Strategy of Hatchling Painted Turtles, or How to Survive in the Cold without Freezing
P turtles (Chrysemys picta) are common residents of shallow lakes and marshes across much of North America east of the Rocky Mountains—so common, in fact, that the species has become a “model organism” for studies on the ecology and evolution of chelonians (Wilbur and Morin 1988). The natural history of painted turtles differs from that of most other species in an important respect, however. Wh...
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Hatchling painted turtles (Chrysemys picta) hibernate in their shallow natal nests where temperatures occasionally fall below -10 C during cold winters. Because the thermal limit of freeze tolerance in this species is approximately -4 C, hatchlings rely on supercooling to survive exposure to extreme cold. We investigated the influence of environmental ice nuclei on susceptibility to inoculative...
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