Colin Carlson

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

Snapping Turtle Research

I am a first semester Honors junior in EEB, and I work with Tobias Landberg on a research project studying the behavior and morphology of the common snapping turtle (Chelydra serpentina), based on footage from a Crittercam project. The footage, collected over the summer, was from three turtles: Jawless and Lafayette from Wethersfield Cove, and Snippy from Shenipsit Lake. (see the snapping turtle research team page for the full story on the turtles). Also, for more information on Crittercam itself, visit National Geographic's Crittercam Homepage.

I have analyzed my data gathered on breathing and dive duration, between which I have found a strong relationship, especially for Snippy. These factors of breath and dive duration ultimately go hand in hand (Fig. 1). I have also statistically tested this fit, and found a strong positive correlation. Note that the order of the breaths is not significant: the fits are equally good for a breath and the preceding dive, and the breath and following dive.

Fig. 1: Time Plot, Breath and Dive Duration Over Time for Snippy (Blue Line = Dive Duration; Black Line = Breath Duration)

Right now, I've finished analyzing breathing rates for all three turtles and a simple analysis of diving vs. pausing, and the data on limb locomotion rates for Jawless; results for this turtle indicate a sort of escape response, with high initial locomotion rates that steadily decline over time. I intend to continue this analysis for the other two turtles. Ultimately, this is intended to create a full time-plot that records the activity of the turtles at any given time, as well as the duration of these events, and for locomotion, the number of limb movements. This data will be analyzed in the hopes of finding trends in the behavior of the turtles.