Bog Turtle Study Being Conducted by Conservancy Staff

Hunters are always interested in whitetailed deer research, particularly when the results help to unravel the many mysteries when it comes to the world of whitetails. Most of us recall or refer to the collaborative PGC and Penn State studies on whitetail fawn mortality or the yearling buck dispersion study, particulalry when it comes to discussing deer management in PA.

Did you know, that as a Science based Conservation organization, The Nature Conservancy at times gets involved in helping to conduct on-the-ground research, usually focused on a wildlife species of concern, such as the threatened Bog Turtle.

The smallest and rarest turtle in North America — the bog turtle — exists in small numbers in only 12 eastern states. Since 1974, the bog turtle has been legally protected in Pennsylvania, but its numbers continued to decline throughout its range by 50 percent or more. Much of its shallow wetland habitat had been converted to residential or commercial use or golf courses. And, because of its rarity, small size and "cuteness," it was highly valued by illegal collectors in the black market pet trade, especially overseas. In 1997, it was finally given federal protection and classified as "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act. Now, laws and funds were available for more research it its remaining homes, habitat requirements and preservation.
TNC-PA staff are involved in ongoing studies to learn as much as they can about this mysterious turtle and how to maintain its security in the Poconos. There are actually two distinct population complexes of bog turtles in the eastern U.S., separated by a 250-mile gap. The northern bog turtles occur in fewer than 200 sites in parts of Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The southern bog turtles occupy southern Virginia down into extreme northeastern Georgia. First discovered by the Rev. Muhlenberg in Lancaster in 1778, the bog turtle is distinguished not only by its small size — the upper shell, or carapace, averages just three inches and rarely exceeds four inches in length — but by prominent, squarish, bright orange or reddish patches of skin on the sides of its face. The upper shell is brownish to ebony in color, with distinct sculptured lines on younger turtles that become smoothed off on older adults from burrowing in the mud. Bog turtles can live as long as 50 years in the wild.

Hibernating from October to April in burrows at the bases of tree roots in wetlands, bog turtles emerge in spring to bask in the warmth of the sun. There diet consists of insects, snails, slugs, worms, crayfish and lots of plant material. Despite their common name, they don't really live in the acidic bogs typical of the Pocono Plateau. Instead, the preferred habitat is a broad, open, marshy, spring-fed, saturated grassland with shallow, neutral to slightly alkaline water, narrow rivulets, a muddy bottom, very few trees and plenty of sedges, grasses, mosses, skunk cabbage and other plants that grow in low, thick clumps emerging from the water and mud. There are often cattails, shrubs like alder, silky dogwood, and arrowwood and small red maples, but once these woody plants become too dense, the bog turtle's preferred wet-meadow habitat disappears. Such ideal habitats are often created by beavers and may once have been maintained by elk browsing the woody plants. Nowadays, cattle may ironically help to maintain these transitional, temporary bog turtle habitats. About a month after emerging from hibernation, bog turtles find mates, and some time in June the females lay only two to five eggs in a shallow depression on top of a clump of moss or sedge tussock. Six to eight weeks later, baby turtles smaller than a quarter hatch, unless raccoons, mink or other predators found the eggs.

Stay tuned for a follow up article describing how Conservancy staff are tracking the movements and survival of bog turtles within Southeastern PA, much like the Game Commission did with their deer movement study.