User:Merry Beth/Sandbox

Conservation

Endangerment

As of November 4, 1997, the bog turtle is, under the Endangered Species Act, considered threatened at the federal level and in the following states: Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. It is also considered endangered in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and New York. The northern population of bog turtles was first to become threatened. The southern population followed soon after, because of its similarity to the northern population. The bog turtle has been labeled as threatened to "conserve the northern population of the bog turtle, which has seriously declined in the northeast United States." Bog turtles are late to mature, slow to reproduce, and are constantly suffering from habitat loss. Due to these reasons, eighty percent of the bog turtle populations that existed thirty years ago do not exist today.

Possible solutions

There are several things that must happen if the bog turtle is to rebound from its current condition. The encroachment of overshadowing trees and brushes, and the construction of new highways and neighborhoods in natural bog turtle habitats must be limited. Also, the number of natural predators of the bog turtle (some mentioned earlier) must be controlled.

Several unique ways of recreating the preferred habitat of the bog turtle include: using controlled burns to limit the growth of overshadowing trees and underbrush (this specifically brings the habitat back to early successional ); allowing livestock, such as cows and goats, to graze in the desired habitat area; and promoting beaver activity, which includes the construction of dams in and around the wetland where bog turtles are trying to populate.

Yet another method of bringing the bog turtle population up to a stable number is captive breeding. This involves refutable organizations carefully mating a given number of bog turtles indoors, where nutrition and mates can be provided for the turtles. The first people to do this privately were Fred Wustholz and Richard J Holub during the 1960s and 1970s. Several organizations, such as the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, have been permitted to captively breed a bog turtle population (in this case, the TWRA gave the association permission).

Study in the field

Radio telemetry has been used to track the movements of bog turtles in the wild. In fact, this technology has revealed that trips of over .5 miles (0.80 km) are common for mature individuals. Some tests done to check for diseases are: blood samples, fecal samples, and cloacal swabs.

Protective legislation

The bog turtle is protected under the Federal Endangered Species Act after becoming a federally endangered species in 1973. Therefore, it is illegal to "sell, trade, barter, possess, import, export, catch, take, or kill" a bog turtle.

Public Awareness

Public opinion is a vital part of the conservation process. By educating the public through presentations and programs at schools, libraries, and community centers, the Glyptemys muhlenbergii is far more likely to see a positive growth in population.

Hope you don't mind me messin' in your sandbox. Some ideas:

• See if you can find the text of the actual United States Fish and Wildlife Service (1997) act somewhere online, and add that as a citation directly. If you can find it you'll be able to add a little blurb as to why the turtles were listed (probably loss of habitat or something like that)
•  Done I recall reading something about the northern population is actually the one listed as threatened, and the southern population only listed because of the similarity in appearance and the practical difficulty of distinguishing between populations (even tho' technically its overall population status was not well-enough known at the time to asses it appropriate protection level)
• Really should mention some techniques used to study these animals in the field. For example, ground surveys are traditional, but they are labor-intensive and expensive, and ineffective when the population is low. The techniques of Geographic information system (GIS), remote sensing and ecological niche modeling have been used in the past decade or two to try to more accurately assess the size of populations.
•  Done How are current farming practices affecting turtle habitat? Wetlands get drained to put land to more "productive use"; cows & other livestock trample on the turtle's turf. All of this kind of stuff is discussed in the literature out there.
•  Done user Thompsa would be an excellent editor to ask for another opinion about this. He did his graduate research on a salamander, and is an expert in amphibian ecology. I'm sure he could quickly give some invaluable hints on what more to include here. Sasata (talk) 04:25, 12 January 2010 (UTC)

I found this PDF, which I will skim through when I get home from school today, I also left a message at the bottom of Thompsa's page asking him if he would be so kind as to critique our work on this page (p.s. feel free to edit this page -_-).--NYMFan69-86 (talk) 16:58, 12 January 2010 (UTC)

http://ecos.fws.gov/speciesProfile/profile/speciesProfile.action?spcode=C048--OomnyMalchick (talk) 16:32, 13 January 2010 (UTC)

http://www.fws.gov/northeast/njfieldoffice/FieldNotes%20WEB%20PDF/2004_Spring_PDF/31&32_McHugh_fullpage.pdf--OomnyMalchick (talk) 16:34, 13 January 2010 (UTC)

http://ecos.fws.gov/docs/recovery_plan/010515.pdf--OomnyMalchick (talk) 16:38, 13 January 2010 (UTC)

How's about we put this in the article and see what some other people say?--NYMFan69-86 (talk) 01:21, 23 January 2010 (UTC)

Bog Turtle

Hi MerryBeth - got your message this morning. I read through your article and enjoyed reading it. As a quick note - I see that the following reference is duplicated multiple times in your notes:

1. ^ Shiels, Andrew L. (2007). "Bog Turtles Slipping Away". Nongame and Endangered Species Unit. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Fish and Boat Commission. http://www.fish.state.pa.us/education/catalog/bogturtle.pdf. Retrieved 2009-09-18.

You will need to fix this citation and some of the formatting for others. The article reads well and the layout is fine. However, you are missing some key citations and literature that could help to expand on the scope of your article. I'm supplying giving you a list with links to a few key citations that you may want to consider in your lit review. Once you read through some of this literature I suggest you pull out some of the bits of natural history or facts that seem more interesting to you and use this to spice the article up a bit. Most of the articles I list are of recent origin - so I also suggest that you look in their reference lists to see if you can dig up some old classics. Oftentimes the older literature has some of the more interesting details.

• Carter, S. L., C. A. Haas, and J. C. Mitchell. 2000. Movements and activity of bog turtles (Clemmys muhlenbergii) in southwestern Virginia. Journal of Herpetology 34: 75–80.[1]
• Lovich J. E., C. H. Ernst, R. T. Zappalorti, D. W. Herman. 1998. Geographic variation in growth and sexual size dimorphism of bog turtles (Clemmys muhlenbergii). American Midland Naturalist 139:69-78.[Lovich J. E., C. H. Ernst, R. T. Zappalorti, D. W. Herman. 1998. Geographic variation in growth and sexual size dimorphism of bog turtles (Clemmys muhlenbergii). American Midland Naturalist 139:69-78.]
• Lovich J. E., D. W. Herman, K. M. Fahey. 1992. Seasonal activity and movements of bog turtles (Clemmys muhlenbergii) in North Carolina. Copeia 1992:1107-1111.
• Lovich J.E., A.F. Laemmerzahl, C.H. Ernst, J.F. McBreen. 1991. Relationships among turtles of the genus Clemmys (Reptilia:Testudines:Emydidae) as suggested by plastron scute morphology. Zoologica Scripta 20:425-429.
• Rosenbaum. P. A., J. M. Robertson, and K. R. Zamudio. 2007. Unexpectedly low genetic divergences among populations of the threatened bog turtle (Glyptemys muhlenbergii). Conservation Genetics 8: 331-342. [2]
• Somers. A.B., J. Mansfield-Jones, and J. Braswell. 2007. In-stream, Under Stream Bank, and Streamside Movements of a Bog Turtle, Glyptemys muhlenbergii. Chelonian Conservation and Biology, 6(2); 286-288.[3]
• T Cregg Madrigal(2008) A Prehistoric Record of Glyptemys muhlenbergii (Bog Turtle) in Central New York, 309-312. In Northeastern Naturalist 15 (2).[4]
• Elizabeth M. Walton's thesis on USING REMOTE SENSING AND GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION SCIENCE

TO PREDICT AND DELINEATE CRITICAL HABITAT FOR THE BOG TURTLE, GLYPTEMYS MUHLENBERGII [5]

• James P. Gibbs and W. Gregory Shriver 2002. Estimating the Effects of Road Mortality on Turtle Populations. Conservation Biology 16(6): 1647-1652 [6]

Hope this helps!Thompsma (talk) 18:01, 12 January 2010 (UTC)

Yes, it helps very much, thank you.--NYMFan69-86 (talk) 00:31, 13 January 2010 (UTC)

I used number four to add some great information to the "possible solutions" section! BTW, the references will be fixed before their placement in the final article.--NYMFan69-86 (talk) 19:22, 13 January 2010 (UTC)

Can I use number 6 in the bog turtle article?--NYMFan69-86 (talk) 19:38, 13 January 2010 (UTC)

Hi User:NYMFan69-86 & User:Merry Beth - I knew of a few of these articles through my affiliation with the SSAR and since I subscribe to the Journal of Herpetology I try to keep up to date on the herp research. I realize that some of these articles are scientifically hefty and by no means do you need to include all of them. I tried to give you a broad selection to choose from. Even if you read two or three of these articles - I'm sure that you will be able to find enough information to complete the box turtle article. I noticed on MerryBeths page that you are doing this as a high school biology project, which I think is just great!! If you need any further help after you have gone through this a bit more - give me a heads up and I will come back and read through it.Thompsma (talk) 22:05, 13 January 2010 (UTC)

Oh yes, I know I don't have to use all of them, but I have already used one for a section and plan to use several others. Again, thank you so much for your help and willingness to walk us through this project (btw, its the bog turtle!).--NYMFan69-86 (talk) 00:11, 14 January 2010 (UTC)

Hey, we're not quite done yet, but could you revise and reword the endangerement section? It needs a serious copyedit (awkward wording).--NYMFan69-86 (talk) 00:36, 14 January 2010 (UTC)

How about we put these sections in the article and see what others say?--NYMFan69-86 (talk) 04:05, 23 January 2010 (UTC)

Sounds good to me--Merry Beth (talk) 02:20, 24 January 2010 (UTC)

Shall we do it like right now?--NYMFan69-86 (talk) 20:16, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

You know what, I just put it in there. -_- --NYMFan69-86 (talk) 20:32, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

Interesting things in Walton's Thesis

The Illegal Pet Trade

• "Turtle collectors have been known to pay as much as $1,200 for a bog turtle, Glyptemys muhlenbergii" (p. 9)

Protecting Endangered Species

• "the current methodology for discovering new wetland habitats involves countless hours of driving around the countryside conducting visual inspections of the landscape." (p. 20)
• "If potential wetlands are observed, landowners are contacted to seek permission to explore for bog turtles." (p. 20)

Using Remote Sensing and GISc Technologies

• "Remote sensing offers the opportunity to use known parameters to discover additional areas that are similar in biological composition and environmental conditions to those supporting species of interest and to detect where such species are likely not to occur."(p. 21)

The Bog Turtle, Glyptemys muhlenbergii"

• "Their populations are small, and can be comprised of less than 20 individuals." (p. 23)

Habitat Loss

• "the Southeastern United States has lost approximately 90 percent of its mountain wetlands, which serve as crucial bog turtle habitat." (p. 24)
• "Through Project Bog Turtle, the USFWS provided funds to lease bog turtle sites from landowners. Modeled after traditional rural land-lease agreements, landowners are paid to leave wetlands unaltered and to allow access to the site for research purposes." (p. 25)

Habitat

• "Fens [the bog turtle's preferred habitat] are usually acidic and experience long-term or continual saturation which produces anaerobic conditions." (p. 26)
• "Grazers churn the mud, creating pockets that trap water that would otherwise flow out of the area, and bog turtles can sometimes be found burrowed down in these pockets." (p. 30)

Biology and Ecology

• "It is believed that few hatchlings survive to sexual maturity due to naturally occurring events such as high mortality in eggs, neonates and juveniles." (p. 31)
• "Extrapolated over a lifetime, a female may lay an average of 30 to 45 eggs, but only a few can be expected to survive to sexual maturity." (p. 31)
• "Sex determination in young juveniles is almost impossible." (p. 32)
• "Age determination is measured by counting the annuli or number of rings within a scute. The innermost ring indicates the scute formed prior to hatching (natal scute) and is not counted. Each subsequent ring is counted as one year." (p. 32)

Well, here's some good info.--NYMFan69-86 (talk) 02:02, 11 April 2010 (UTC)

All of this looks really good and shouldn't be a problem to add in. I'll take a look at the pdf tomorrow and see if I can add anything to this list.--Merry Beth (talk) 01:53, 12 April 2010 (UTC)

I've added in the things not crossed out today and have informed Sasata. I stopped reading on page 32, after that it's a bunch of graphs and data, so I don't know if any of that can/should go in.--NYMFan69-86 (talk) 02:00, 12 April 2010 (UTC)

I only found one other additional fact that we could possibly add (although it doesn't seem all too vital for the article): "Because bog turtle status surveys in the Southeast are ongoing, it is important to identify additional habitat sites and relict populations." (p. 3) --Merry Beth (talk) 02:01, 14 April 2010 (UTC)

Sure, that sounds good. You can throw it in somewhere, just make sure you sight the page of the article, not the PDF. You can cite it like the others are with the individual page numbers.--NYMFan69-86 (talk) 03:08, 14 April 2010 (UTC)

Taxonomy

The bog turtle was first described in the 1700s by Gotthilf Heinrich Ernst Muhlenberg, a self-taught botanist and clergyman who named more than 150 North American plant species. He was conducting a survey of the flora of Lancaster County when he discovered the small turtle.

Johann David Schoepf categorized Muhlenberg's discovery in 1801 as Testudo mulenbergii to honor Muhlenberg. In 1829 the turtle was renamed Emys muhlenbergii by Richard Harlan. Itwas renamed again in 1857 to Calemys muhlenbergii by Louis Agassiz and then to Clemmys muhlenbergii by Henry Watson Fowler in 1906. The common name of the species was changed to bog turtle in 1956. Various names are appleid to the bog turtle including mud turtle, marsh turtle, yellowhead, and snapper.

The genus name was changed to Glyptemys in 2001. The bog turtle and the wood turtle, Glyptemys insculpta, had until then been included in the genus Clemmys, which also included spotted turtles (C. guttata) and western pond turtles (C. marmorata). Bog turtles and wood turtles are closely related, but neither is directly related to spotted turtles, hence the creation of the new genus Glyptemys.