Blanding's turtles (Emydoidea blandingii) avoid crossing unpaved and paved roads

Published source details Proulx C.L., Fortin G. & Blouin-Demers G. (2014) Blanding's turtles (Emydoidea blandingii) avoid crossing unpaved and paved roads. Journal of Herpetology, 48, 267-271.
Share Tweet Email

This study is summarised as evidence for the following.

	Action	Category
	Use road closures Action Link
	Alter road surfaces Action Link

Use road closures

A replicated study in 2010 in wetlands and forests bisected by roads along the Ottawa River in southern Québec, Canada (Proulx et al. 2014) found that closed roads were not used more by Blanding's turtles Emydoidea blandingii compared to roads open to vehicle traffic. Blanding’s turtles showed similar levels of use of roads closed (0.9 crossings/individual) and open to vehicle traffic (1.1 crossings/individual). Twenty-four of 52 turtles crossed roads. Fifty-two Blanding's turtles (22 females, 24 males, 6 juveniles) were captured by hand or using hoop nets and a radio transmitter was attached to their shell. All turtles were tracked every 2–4 days from May to August 2010.

(Summarised by: Maggie Watson, Katie Sainsbury)
Alter road surfaces

A replicated study in 2010 in wetlands and forests bisected by roads along the Ottawa River in southern Québec, Canada (Proulx et al. 2014) found that Blanding's turtles Emydoidea blandingii did not cross paved roads more compared to unpaved roads. Blanding’s turtles showed similar levels of use of paved roads (0.1 crossings/individual) compared to unpaved roads (1.0 crossings/individual). Twenty-four of 52 turtles crossed roads. Fifty-two Blanding's turtles (22 females, 24 males, 6 juveniles) were captured by hand or using hoop nets and a radio transmitter was attached to their shell. All turtles were tracked every 2–4 days from May to August 2010.

(Summarised by: Maggie Watson, Katie Sainsbury)