An Ad Hoc Translocation of Urban Eastern Box Turtles (Terrapene carolina carolina)

Erin E. Poor¹, Annette Spivy¹, Lindsay Rohrbaugh², and Jennifer M. Mullinax^1,*

¹Department of Environmental Science and Technology, 1443 Animal Science Building, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742. ²Fisheries and Wildlife Division, Department of Energy and Environment, 1200 First Street NE, Washington, DC 20002. *Corresponding author.

Northeastern Naturalist, Volume 27, Issue 4 (2020): 631–640

Abstract
As the human population grows and wildlife habitat is lost, managers are increasingly reliant on hands-on management strategies such as translocation. Without much evidence suggesting success, moving a species or population from one location to another has been controversial for some taxa, especially for wildlife in urban areas. Here, in an ad hoc translocation of Terrapene carolina carolina (Eastern Box Turtle) in Washington, DC, we describe movements of 10 translocated turtles from 2011 to 2014, with 4 settling into apparent short-term home ranges and 6 requiring repeated relocation. Our study population was small, but results suggested that home-range establishment may occur with repositioning individuals post-release. Translocations should not proceed without sufficient investment from managers to carry out long-term monitoring of released individuals.

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