Notes on the Nesting Ecology of Eastern Box Turtles near the Northern Limit of their Range

Abstract We evaluated the nestingecology of Terrapene Carolina Carolina ( Eastern Box Turtle) near their northern range limit in Massachusetts. We identified 34 nestsin 2005 and 2006 at 4 study sites, and measured clutchsize, nestsuccess, hatchlingsize, and habitat characteristics at each site. Mean clutchsize was 5.87 eggs, and egg survival was approximately 50% to hatching, excluding depredation. Large-bodied females tended to oviposit larger clutchesthan small-bodied females, although the correlation was not significant, and a smaller proportion of their eggs produced live hatchlings. Nestdepredation varied greatly across sites from 0 to nearly 100%. The variability observed across the species' range and across sites underscores the importance of obtaining local information when developing conservation and management programs for rare turtles. The characteristics of the nestsites observed in our study could be simulated to more effectively create or maintain artificial nestsites for Eastern Bo...