Biology & Sustainability
Olfaction as a Cue for Nest Site Choice in Painted Turtles (Chrysemys picta) in Nebraska
Document Type
Oral Presentation
Location
Indianapolis, IN
Subject Area
Biology & Sustainability
Start Date
11-4-2014 11:00 AM
End Date
11-4-2014 11:45 AM
Sponsor
Wendy Tori (Earlham College), John Iverson (Earlham College)
Description
The precise location where a female turtle deposits her eggs has huge consequences to her fitness, especially in the majority of turtle species that exhibit temperature-dependent sex determination. Not surprisingly, nest choice has been relatively well studied on a regional and global scale. However, nest site choice has been much less well studied on the microenvironmental scale. The only published fine-scale study of nesting cues investigated soil temperature as a primary cue. Our observations of nesting in painted turtles at our study site on the Crescent Lake National Wildlife Refuge in the Nebraska Sandhills suggested that females may be using olfactory cues (specifically odors of other nesting females) to choose nest sites, and that females often chose nest sites immediately adjacent to other females' sites. No study has attempted to evaluate the role of olfactory cues in nest site choice in turtles. By mapping each nest, we tested the hypothesis that if odor is an important cue for nest choice, the average distance between nests in general nesting areas should be significantly shorter than the average distance between random sites in that same general nest area. Our results for nests in 2013 were mixed, with nesting at some sites and by some turtles occurring in close proximity to previous nests. These data provide some support for the use of odor as a cue for nest site choice, but are insufficient to reject the possibility of the simultaneous use of other subtle environmental cues.
Olfaction as a Cue for Nest Site Choice in Painted Turtles (Chrysemys picta) in Nebraska
Indianapolis, IN
The precise location where a female turtle deposits her eggs has huge consequences to her fitness, especially in the majority of turtle species that exhibit temperature-dependent sex determination. Not surprisingly, nest choice has been relatively well studied on a regional and global scale. However, nest site choice has been much less well studied on the microenvironmental scale. The only published fine-scale study of nesting cues investigated soil temperature as a primary cue. Our observations of nesting in painted turtles at our study site on the Crescent Lake National Wildlife Refuge in the Nebraska Sandhills suggested that females may be using olfactory cues (specifically odors of other nesting females) to choose nest sites, and that females often chose nest sites immediately adjacent to other females' sites. No study has attempted to evaluate the role of olfactory cues in nest site choice in turtles. By mapping each nest, we tested the hypothesis that if odor is an important cue for nest choice, the average distance between nests in general nesting areas should be significantly shorter than the average distance between random sites in that same general nest area. Our results for nests in 2013 were mixed, with nesting at some sites and by some turtles occurring in close proximity to previous nests. These data provide some support for the use of odor as a cue for nest site choice, but are insufficient to reject the possibility of the simultaneous use of other subtle environmental cues.