Joshua R. Brown and John L. Carr

The turtle fauna of Bayou DeSiard has been studied based on museum specimen records and multiple sampling methods. Bayou DeSiard is found in Ouachita Parish, Louisiana, an area that has undergone increasing development as population has spread north and east of the City of Monroe, including extensive additions of housing along waterfront property. The bayou, an abandoned channel of the Arkansas River, is about 35 miles long and divided into nine discrete segments by dams, causeways, and bridges. Turtles have been captured with baited hoop nets and by hand at irregular intervals since 1985. The most recent sampling effort began in the spring of 2006. Turtles were measured, marked and weighed, then released at the capture site. We used ULM Museum of Natural History records from 1963-1975 to investigate temporal changes in the species composition of the bayou. Thirteen species of aquatic turtles from four families are represented in the museum records. Recent collecting efforts in two of the nine bayou segments have recorded 8 of the 13 species. Sternotherus odoratus and Trachemys scripta ranked highest in abundance for hand captures and trapping effort, respectively.

North America Session: Oral (Student)

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