Human Impacts On Painted Turtle Behavior And Offspring Survival
Location
Golden Eagles
Start Date
2-5-2025 10:30 AM
Department
Biology
Abstract
As wildlife adapts to the ever-growing human population, they may modify their behavior to survive in human-modified environments. Understanding how a species may modify their behavior is necessary for predicting and mitigating the impacts of global change on biodiversity. Painted turtles, Chrysemys picta, are an ideal species with which to study this because they can be found in areas with high and low densities of human populations, they are long-lived, and they have well-known life histories. I investigated how painted turtle behavior is impacted by anthropogenic disturbances related to human-derived sounds. I conducted an experiment to assess how anthropogenic sounds affect turtle nesting behavior and offspring development at Thomson Causeway using recorded anthropogenic sounds (traffic, construction, and people talking). I expected that turtles exposed to anthropogenic sounds will have higher corticosterone levels, shorter nesting times, higher levels of boldness behavior, and higher egg retention rates than the turtles exposed to natural sounds. I also expected to find that hatchlings exposed to anthropogenic sounds during development will have lower survival rates, higher levels of boldness behavior, and reduced nest emergence, than those exposed to natural sounds.
Faculty Sponsor
Beth Reinke
Human Impacts On Painted Turtle Behavior And Offspring Survival
Golden Eagles
As wildlife adapts to the ever-growing human population, they may modify their behavior to survive in human-modified environments. Understanding how a species may modify their behavior is necessary for predicting and mitigating the impacts of global change on biodiversity. Painted turtles, Chrysemys picta, are an ideal species with which to study this because they can be found in areas with high and low densities of human populations, they are long-lived, and they have well-known life histories. I investigated how painted turtle behavior is impacted by anthropogenic disturbances related to human-derived sounds. I conducted an experiment to assess how anthropogenic sounds affect turtle nesting behavior and offspring development at Thomson Causeway using recorded anthropogenic sounds (traffic, construction, and people talking). I expected that turtles exposed to anthropogenic sounds will have higher corticosterone levels, shorter nesting times, higher levels of boldness behavior, and higher egg retention rates than the turtles exposed to natural sounds. I also expected to find that hatchlings exposed to anthropogenic sounds during development will have lower survival rates, higher levels of boldness behavior, and reduced nest emergence, than those exposed to natural sounds.