In our turtle sampling at Nine-mile Island in Pool 12 in the Upper Mississippi River, painted turtles are the dominant species by number. While many captured turtles are recaptures, many of them are also caught only once, which suggests differing movement patterns. In an effort to better understand the type of habitat use and movement patterns of these turtles we used radio-telemetry to track three (3) turtles over a period of two months. Hoop nets were used to capture these turtles in a backwater portion of Nine-mile Island, then radio transmitters were attached to their carapace, and the turtles were released into the backwater they were captured in. All three turtles showed similar movement patterns in that each of them would stay in one small region for several days then moved to another nearby area. Total distance moved by the turtles in the tracking period was variable.
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