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.
Citation:Nie, Eric T., & Hoffman, Adam R. “Monitoring the Impact of the Land Use Characteristics on the Surface Water Quality of a Mississippi River Tributary.” Poster presentation for the Chlapaty Research Fellowship Program, University of Dubuque, 2013.
Southern flying squirrels, Glaucomys volans, are a “species of concern” in Iowa. Within Iowa, they are considered “uncommon” with an “unknown” population trend. This assessment appears driven by a lack of information for the species. While their reported distribution in Iowa includes all but the extreme northwest corner, there are relatively few records of the species for the state. Beginning in early June 2012, we surveyed southern flying squirrels along four transects within Mines of Spain Recreation Area (MoSRA), a state park located in Dubuque County, Iowa. These transects also were sampled in 2011. We used Ugglan multi-capture live-traps, baited with peanut butter mixed with raisins, which were placed on trees approximately 5-meters above ground level. Traps were checked each morning, for five consecutive days, every other week. To date, 18 flying squirrels have been captured and marked with PIT (Passive Integrated Transponder) tags. Capture rates for 2012 were lower than for 2011. Also, patterns of capture success differed between years; the highest capture success for 2012 comes from the transect with the lowest capture success in 2011. We will summarize our capture data for 2012 and compare to previous years.
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