USF St. Petersburg campus Faculty Publications

Beach selection in nesting pig-nosed turtles, Carettochelys insculpta

SelectedWorks Author Profiles:

J. Sean Doody

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2003

ISSN

0022-1511

Abstract

We investigated beach selection of nesting Pig-Nosed Turtles (Carettochelys insculpta) along a 63-km stretch of river for two years. We found 221 nests on 82 nesting beaches and identified 171 potential nesting beaches based on previously published criteria. Beaches with nests had a greater substrate moisture content and corresponding higher cohesive sand line (hereafter CSL) than beaches without nests. Beaches with nests also had a higher CSL than beaches with only crawls. Beach temperatures increased with a seasonal increase in air temperatures and were influenced by aspect and total angle of solar exposure. Turtles did not select beaches that were hotter or cooler, on average, than what was available, indicating that turtles were not manipulating offspring sex through choice of nesting beach.

Comments

Citation only. Full-text article is available through licensed access provided by the publisher. Members of the USF System may access the full-text of the article through the authenticated link provided.

Language

en_US

Publisher

SOC STUDY AMPHIBIANS REPTILES

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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