Marine debris is a growing problem for wildlife, and has been documented to affect more than 267 species worldwide. We investigated the prevalence of marine debris ingestion in 115 sea turtles stranded in Queensland between 2006-2011, and assessed how the ingestion rates differ between species (Eretmochelys imbricata vs. Chelonia mydas) and by turtle size class (smaller oceanic feeders vs. larg...

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...

Sea turtles are known to detect chemical cues, but in contrast to most marine animals, turtles surface to breathe and thus potentially have access to olfactory cues both in air and in water. To determine whether sea turtles can detect airborne chemical cues, captive loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta) were placed into a circular, water-filled arena in which odorants could be introduced to the ...

Green turtles (Chelonia mydas) that shuttle between their Brazilian feeding grounds and nesting beaches at Ascension Island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean are a paradigmatic case of long-distance oceanic migrants. It has been suggested that they calculate their position and the direction of their target areas by using the inclination and intensity of the earth's magnetic field. To test thi...

We investigated the effects of exogenous corticosterone on the locomotor activity of captive red-eared slider turtles, Trachemys scripta elegans. An increase in plasma corticosterone often increases locomotor activity in mammals and birds, but there are no reported findings for turtles. In this study turtles implanted with corticosterone-filled Silastic((R)) implants showed a significant increa...

Map turtles from Wisconsin were submerged at 3 degrees C in normoxic and anoxic water to simulate extremes of potential respiratory microenvironments while hibernating under ice. In predive turtles, and in turtles submerged for up to 150 days, plasma PO2, PCO2) pH, [Cl-], [Na+], [K+], total Mg, total Ca, lactate, glucose, and osmolality were measured; hematocrit and body mass were determined, a...

Many freshwater turtle species can spend the winter submerged in ice-covered lakes by lowering their metabolism, and it has been proposed that such severe metabolic depression render these turtles comatose. This raises the question of how they can detect the arrival of spring and respond in a sensible way to sensory information during hibernation. Using evoked potentials from cold or hypoxic tu...

Citizen science is emerging as a powerful tool for the early detection of biological invasions. The exotic pet trade has been deemed most significant cause establishment reptiles, and among them, turtles have highest number introduction events. In Europe, at least 13 species alien freshwater recorded in wild. Greece, only two reported, namely American pond slider Trachemys scripta Florida coote...

Advances in molecular biology have expanded our understanding of patterns of evolution and our ability to infer phylogenetic relationships. Despite many applications of molecular methods in attempts at resolving the evolutionary relationships among the major clades of turtles, some nodes in the tree have proved to be extremely problematic and have remained unresolved. In this study, we use 14 n...

In the South Atlantic Ocean, few data exist regarding the dispersal of young oceanic sea turtles. We characterized the movements of laboratory-reared yearling loggerhead turtles from Brazilian rookeries using novel telemetry techniques, testing for differences in dispersal during different periods of the sea turtle hatching season that correspond to seasonal changes in ocean currents. Oceanogra...