Home range and movements of a wood turtle (Clemmys insculpta) population at the northern limit of its range

Abstract

We studied the home ranges and seasonal movements of 20 wood turtles (Clemmys insculpta) living near the northern limit of their distribution in the Mauricie region, Quebec, Canada. We found average home-range areas of 28.3 ha. Wood turtles showed site fidelity; there was an average overlap of 60.7% in their home ranges, and 88.8% of the home-range centroids were not significantly different for the 2 years of the study. The home ranges were larger than those reported from studies in more southerly locations, leading us to hypothesize larger home-range territories with increasing latitude. Our analyses indicate that turtle movements could be grouped into four distinct activity periods during the active season: the prenesting, nesting, postnesting, and prehibernation periods. We found that wood turtles were closely associated with streams. Based on the importance of this habitat for the species, we suggest the establishment of protected buffer strips along streams used by wood turtles.