ID: 8982; Wildlife Preservation Fund Grant IDNR RC03L21W and Nature Conservancy Grant:
            Nature Conserv 1131626100 Final Report issued December 4, 2003INHS Technical Report prepared for Illinois Department of Natural Resources and Nature
            Conservanc

Hunkapiller, Timothy

Kuhns, Andrew R.

Phillips, Christopher A.

English

Illinois Digital Environment for Access to Learning and Scholarship Repository

I LLINOIUNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGNPRODUCTION NOTEUniversity of Illinois atUrbana-Champaign LibraryLarge-scale Digitization Project, 2007.SKankakee Sands Ornate Box Turtle (Terrapene ornata) Population& Ecosystem AssessmentFinal ReportIllinois Natural History SurveyCenter for Biodiversity Technical Report No. 2003 (35)Submitted in Fulfillment of Requirements of Wildlife PreservationFund Grant: IDNR RC03L21WAndThe Nature Conservancy Grant: Nature Conserv 11316261004 December 2003Christopher A. Phillips, Andrew R. Kuhns, and TimothyHunkapillerIllinois Natural History Survey, 607 E.Peabody Drive, Champaign,IL 61820IntroductionThe Kankakee Sands Macrosite is a complex of high-quality natural lands including wet/mesicsand prairie, oak barrens/savanna, and sedge meadows in northeast Illinois and northwestIndiana. A project is currently underway which targets over 7,500 acres of cropland anddegraded grassland/savanna for restoration into a mosaic of native grasslands, savannas andwetlands which will ultimately restore connectivity to a landscape-scale system exceeding40,000 acres. The Nature Conservancy, with assistance from professionals from IL DNR, INDNR, INHS, and state universities, is in the process of completing a viability study for theKankakee Sands Macrosite. One of the target species in the ornate box turtle (Terrapeneornata).It is easy to see why the ornate box turtle is considered a target species of sand prairies andsavannas of the Kankakee Sands ecosystem. The turtle is associated with open habitatscharacterized by rolling topography with grasses and low shrubs as the dominant vegetation.Disturbance factors such as fire, grazing, and the presence of plains pocket gopher maintain theopen structure of prairie and savannas which benefit the turtle. The Kankakee Sands populationof ornate box turtles is disjunct from other populations and is the northeastern most population.The ornate box turtle is long lived, and easy to capture, mark, and recapture. Therefore it is anideally suited vertebrate for long term monitoring of the Kankakee Sands ecosystem. It is also acharismatic species that has ideal characteristics for monitoring by citizen scientists.As a result of its importance to this particular ecosystem we investigated the status of the ornatebox turtle in the Kankakee Sands. The main goal of this study was to determine thepresence/absence of the ornate box turtle at various sites throughout the Kankakee SandsMacrosite: In addition, occurrence of pocket gophers and red-headed woodpeckers were notedin the immediate vicinity of all ornate box turtle locations.Secondary goals were to estimate population size and density of the ornate box turtle andcharacterize the habitat associated with the ornate box turtle at a subset of sites in the KankakeeSands Macrosite.MethodsThe main method employed was systematic searching of the area following the Visual EncounterSurvey (VES) protocols [for details see Heyer, W.R., M.A. Donnelly, R.W. McDiarmid, L. C.Hayek, and M.S. Foster, eds. 1994. Measuring and Monitoring Biodiversity: Standard Methodsfor Amphibians. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington. 364 pp.]. This involves looking foranimals in all habitats including under all cover objects (natural and artificial). Effort wasrecorded in man-hours and area searched. All ornate box turtles encountered were permanentlyand uniquely marked by filing a notch in one or more marginal scutes. This process took placeat the site of encounter, after which turtles were released. The following physical characteristicswere measured and recorded: sex, mass, carapace length (CL), carapace width (CW), anteriorand posterior plastron lobe length (APL, PPL), and shell height (SH). Air temperature, relativehumidity, wind speed, location coordinates (with GPS), other amphibians and reptilesencountered, presence/absence of active pocket gopher mounds and red-headed woodpeckersand canopy cover (using a spherical densiometer) were recorded at all turtle encounters. At asubset of survey sites, the following variables were also recorded at turtle locations: number ofred-headed woodpeckers heard or seen during the time it takes to process the turtle and collect allvariables (WDPCKR), distance to nearest road (ROAD), distance to nearest forest edge (EDGE),number of active pocket gopher mounds within 40 m radius (GOPHER), and distance to nearesttree and shrub averaged over each of four quadrants within 40 m radius (TREE and SHRUB).All turtles encountered were fitted with small radio-transmitters and followed for up to 45 days.The transmitters weigh less than 5% of the turtle's mass and were glued to the upper shell of theturtle using marine epoxy. All of the above variables were be recorded at each location of atelemetered turtle.ResultsA total of 58.9 man-hours of Visual Encounter Surveys were conducted at eleven sites from 29April through 7 July 2003 (Table 1). No ornate box turtles were encountered during the timedVES.Table 1. Name, owner, search effort, and approximate size of sites searched for ornate boxturtles in spring, 2003.Site Name Owner Effort (man-hr) Size(ha)Bill Barnes Nature Preserve (Willow Slough) IN DNR 5 -100Conrad Savanna Nature Preserve IN DNR 10 202Bentley/ Crawford-Jordan Property TNC 2.8 24.3De Young Property TNC 4 -50Harris - Ezell Property (Mt. Fraker) TNC 1.5 26.3Hooper Branch Savanna Nature Preserve IL DNR 10.3 -200Iroquois State Wildlife Area (ISWA) IL DNR 12.4 -800Leesville West Site IL DNR 6.1 ?Liebert Property TNC 2.7 259Sweet Fern Savanna private 3.1 12.1Tommy Green Property TNC 1 -30Totals _58.9 -1700*The times reported for Hooper and ICWA do not include the time we spent searching while onthe way to or back from tracking the two radio-tracked turtles. This would probably add anadditional 12-15 hours for each radio-tracked turtle in ICWA/Hooper.Site personnel at ISWA encountered two ornate box turtles on County Road 3300 N, one on 22May (turtle # IL) and one on 24 May (turtle # 2L). We attached radio-transmitters (Holohil SB-2T) to these turtles and located them approximately every other day until 7 July. Physicalcharacteristics of the two radiotracked turtles are given in Table 2. Movement data are given inTable 3. Turtle 1L established a home range estimated at 1.6 hectares (excluding the initialcapture point; see Figs. 1 &2) using the Minimum Convex Polygon method (for details, seeMohr, C.O. 1947. Table of equivalent populations of North American small mammals Am. Midl.Nat. 37(1):223-249). The habitat type of 1L's home range was mainly shrub prairie. Turtle 2Lnever established a home range (see Fig. 1), instead it moved across the SW comrner of HooperBranch and into private property just west of Hooper Branch. The landowner was contacted andrequested that we not track the turtle on his property. On 23 June we moved the turtle back intoISWA into IL's home range. It immediately moved NW back toward the same private property.On 7 July we decided to remove 2L's transmitter. We also removed IL's at the same time.Environment and habitat variables associated with the turtle radiolocations are given in Tables 4and 5, respectively. Two locations for 2L had pocket gopher mounds in close proximity. Werecorded three woodpecker observations while radiotracking both turtles.Table 2. Physical characteristics of two radio-tracked ornate box turtles at Iroquois StateWildlife Area, May to July, 2003. All length measurements are in millimeters.Turtle ID Sex Mass (g) CL CW APL PPL SH1L M 191 90 80 38.6 57.0 532L M 234 101 83 40.4 63.3 47Table 3. Movement data for two radio-tracked ornate box turtles at Iroquois State WildlifeArea, May to July, 2003. All distances are in meters.Turtle ID Total Movement Average Daily Range of Distances betweenMovement EncountersIL 1697 378 0-6292L 4082* 102* 0 -529*excluding distance and time translocated from private property back to ISWA. See Fig. 1.Table 4. Average environmental variables recorded at turtle radio-locations for two radio-tracked ornate box turtles at Iroquois StateWildlife Area, May to July, 2003.Turtle ID Air Relative Wind SpeedTemperature (C) Humidity (m/sec)1L 26.1 57% 1.72L 25.4 56% 0.9Mean 25.8 55.5% 1.3Table 5. Average habitat variables recorded at turtle radiolocations for two radio-tracked ornate box turtles at Iroquois State Wildlife Area, May to July, 2003.Refer to the text for abbreviations. CANOPY is given in percent cover, theremainder are in meters.Turtle ID CANOPY TREE SHRUB ROAD EDGE1L 4.0 108 0.74 608 1612L 45.1 18 3.69 253 24Mean 24.6 63 2.21 431 93DiscussionThe fact that we did not detect any ornate box turtles in over 60 man-hours of searching suggeststhat either box turtles are scarce in this area or we were not searching the appropriate habitat.The two senior authors have extensive experience with Terrapene ornata at other Illinoislocations. For example, ARK spent two field seasons studying Terrapene ornata and T. carolinaat Carlyle Lake for his Master's Degree. For May and June searching, ARK's encounter rateranged from 0 to 13 box turtles (of both species) per day. In addition, turtle 1L in this studyAspent the majority of his time in shrub prairie and sedge meadow, two habitat types that wesearched extensively. It is unlikely that we searched inappropriate habitat. It is our opinion thatornate box turtles are rare in the Kankakee Sands Macrosite. As evidence we point to the paucityof historical records for the species in the study area. Table 6 lists all records of T. ornata forKankakee and Iroquois counties known to us. We searched the databases of over 35 NorthAmerican museums and other natural history collections that were likely to hold Illinois material.Only 15 records of T. ornata were found and all but three of those were prior to 1950.Table 6. Museum records or reliable reports of ornate box turtles from Kankakee and Iroquoiscounties, Illinois culled from the holdings of over 35 museums, natural history collections, andfield personnel.Source* Location County Date CommentsINHS 3 mi N Watseka IROQ June 1948INHS 6 mi N Watseka IROQ June 1949KU IROQ 1987 skeletonFMNH Pembroke Township KANK Oct 1935FMNH Pembroke Township KANK May 1936CA Pembroke Township KANK May 1938CA Pembroke Township KANK June 1938CA Pembroke Township KANK June 1938CA Pembroke Township KANK Oct 1938CA Pembroke Township KANK Sept 1938FMNH Pembroke Township KANK Sept 1938FMNH Aroma Park, ca 2 mi E KANKKankakee Sept 1938CA St. Anne KANK Sept 1939INHS N shoulder Co. Rd. 3000S, ca. KANK0.3 km (0.2 mi) E of Co. Rd.15000E June 2002 Adult maleUNVOUCH 0.2 mi W Co. Rd. 1300E on Co. KANKRd. 4000S Aug 2003 DORINHS = IL Nat. Hist. Survey; KU = Univ. Kansas Nat. Hist. Museum; FMNH= Field Museum of Nat. Hist.; CA = Chicago Acad. Science; UNVOUCH = reportedby Fran Harty, IL TNC.otolmso1 oa°o4 0"o.0oci2.- Cci,130"C,)*" W-I,kTr1igUl L-. _,oIs-up o UIltr iti s lUIIln range snaueu gray) snowing mne area excluaea oyremoving the capture point from the analysis.

Kankakee Sands Ornate Box Turtle (Terrapene ornata) Population and Ecosystem Assessment

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