Colin Carlson

Snapping Turtle Research

Ograbme the Snapping Turtle. More vicious than all other snapping turtles. Crittercammers beware!

I am a second-semester Honors sophomore in EEB, and I work with Tobias Landberg on a research project concerning snapping turtles based on footage from Crittercam (see the snapping turtle research team page for more info). Also, for more information on Crittercam itself, visit http://www.nationalgeographic.com/crittercam/ The footage, collected over the summer, was from three turtles: Jawless and Lafayette from Wethersfield Cove, and Snippy from Shenipsit Lake.

Snippy Breathing and Dive Duration Over Time (Blue Line = Dive Duration; Black Line = Breath Duration)

I have analyzed my data gathered on breathing and dive duration, between which I have found a strong relationship, especially for Snippy. The graph posted is one depicting a time plot for Snippy's breath and dive duration, on an x-axis of the number of the "event" (first breath/dive, second breath/dive, etc.) - as the graph suggests, the factors appear to go hand in hand. I have also statistically tested this fit, and found a strong positive correlation.

Right now, I've finished analyzing breathing rates for Jawless and Lafayette, as well as my locomotion research with the Snippy data (which means I'm about to start the Jawless/Lafayette data for locomotion). Among the topics I intend to study further during my future research are:

• Locomotion rates
• Interspecific interactions
• Behavioral trends