THIRD PLACE - SESSION A (Botony, Zoology, Geology and Geography)

Turtle Activity on Wolftever Creek and Wilkerson Branch from

April to November, 2004

Kristi Weis, Southern Adventist University

Turtle activity was studied from April to November 2004 on Wilkerson Branch and Wolftever Creek, two medium-sized streams that feed into the Tennessee River in Southeastern TN. The turtles captured in hoop traps were numbered and data was taken for each one. The anticipation was to find out what turtle species is prevalent on the smaller streams in Eastern TN and to find out more about the turtles' movement. In all, forty turtles were captured between the two creeks with five recaptures. Chelydra serpentina constituted 85% of turtles captured. Due to this large percentage, the detailed analysis of the data focused on this species. June had the most captures, with May coming in second. The only noticeable difference between male and female movement was in June. When a turtle was placed back in the trap as bait, new turtles were captured only 20% of the time.