Mark S. Mills

I began marking turtles in the floodplain marsh (Oumessourit State Natural Area) of Van Meter State Park (VMSP) in the fall of 2000 as part of a herpetological survey of this unique wetland. During the course of these efforts, I captured a Trachemys scripta on 6/6/2002 in the marsh that was originally captured in Lake Teteseau at Grand Pass Conservation Area (GPCA) by Russ Bodie, then a master’s student at MU, on 6/21/1998. Because the marsh at VMSP is rather shallow and much of it dries seasonally, I hypothesized that turtles may use this marsh seasonally, particularly in the spring and early summer when crayfish are abundant, with the Van Meter Ditch and Lake Teteseau serving as refuges or source populations. Therefore, in the spring of 2005 my students and I began a more intensive trapping effort in these three Missouri River floodplain wetlands in order to address this hypothesized movement among wetlands. As of 10/20/2005, we have marked 187 turtles consisting of four species: one Apalone spinifer, 58 Chelydra serpentina, 19 Chrysemys picta, and 109 Trachemys scripta. Two turtles were originally marked by Russ Bodie nine years prior to their last capture. Of the 20 recaptures, four (20%) were originally marked in a wetland other than where they were recaptured; that is, they had moved between wetlands. Whereas these observations do not necessarily demonstrate a seasonal movement pattern, they do suggest that movement among these wetlands is relatively common and may prove important in managing these wetlands.
International conservation/field research Oral

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