Box turtle survey results
Preliminary results from the
2007 survey are a “good news/bad news story” for Arkansas box turtles. The good news includes the fact that, even though the survey was designed to document live, injured, and dead turtles, 95% of the sightings were live turtles. The majority of these turtles were seen in residential yards and on paved roads. Almost all the dead and injured turtles were adults and were reported on paved roads. Most turtle deaths occurred in May and June, when the reptiles are most active, coming out of hibernation, and looking for food and mates.
Additional good news is that many people care enough about box turtles to actively help them. The survey included 139 individual reports of people stopping and moving a box turtle safely away from a road.
Many people were already enjoying box turtles at home in their yards and were happy to report “their” box turtle data. Some people had records of seeing the same box turtles each season for multiple years. The turtles are also a favorite with amateur wildlife photographers and many box turtle watchers submitted photographs which help further document their sightings. While most of the survey reports were submitted online, some turtle watchers phoned in their data, including an Arkansas State Trooper and a school bus driver who each kept track of the turtles on their routes and phoned in sightings once a month.
Most of the observations were of adult turtles, based on the estimated size of the shell. Box turtles are one of the longest-lived animals in the state (upwards of 60 years or more). They do not reach sexual maturity until about 13 years of age. The 2007 survey cites an encouraging number of 194 juvenile turtles. Reports of mating and egg-laying in backyards and flower beds were also encouraging.
A downloadable version of the complete 2007 Arkansas Box Turtle Survey results are available as a PDF below: