Christopher A. Howey and Stephen A. Dinkelacker

In order to meet specific energetic expenditures (e.g., feeding, foraging, digestion, growth, and reproduction), reptiles thermoregulate to manipulate body temperatures and metabolic rates. However, the relative importance and energy investment in those expenditures may change daily and seasonally. Furthermore, reproduction is an expenditure that varies seasonally with sex and reproductive status. In freshwater turtles, basking is used to elevate body temperatures (thus, metabolic rates) above environmental temperatures. This is especially true for gravid females that need to produce a viable clutch of eggs. However, alligator snapping turtles (Macrochelys temminckii) rarely exhibit this behavior. Instead, we suspect this species selects specific microhabitats depending upon sex and reproductive status. Toward this end, 13 adult alligator snapping turtles (3 male, 4 non-gravid females, and 6 gravid females) were fitted with radio transmitters and were located every 3-5 days during times of increased activity (April – November) and at least once a week during months with little to no activity. At each turtle location and a subsequent random location, habitat characteristics were recorded. These characteristics were compared among sex, reproductive status, and random locations using nonmetric multidimensional scaling (NMS). Statistical differences among groups were determined using multi-response permutation procedures (MRPP). Differences among groups will be discussed.
Macrochelys Session: Oral (Student)

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