Hibernation Season

Hibernation, or "brumation", season is upon us! Our Forest Park box turtles have been moving toward their hibernaculum (the spot they will hibernate) for weeks now and are searching out the perfect spot.

Over the past several weeks we have been able to see both Georgette's and Pedro's areas (pictured below). You'll notice that both areas have a decent spot to "hunker down" where surrounding plants (fallen logs, low plant cover) can help guard a turtle from cold winds and predators. Additionally, the falling leaves will create a bit of a "blanket" cover for the turtles, which helps trap heat.

Each hibernaculum and turtle shell has an "ibutton" that will record the temperature every 4 hours. Once the data are downloaded we can check to see what the temperature is really like in the hibernaculum areas!

Happy hibernating guys! See you in the spring!

Georgette's Location





Pedro's Location

Meet Pedro

Meet Pedro!

Pedro is a newly tagged turtle in Forest Park. Since he is newer to the study he is not as used to being handled as some of the others and was a little shy the first time we met him. 

You can see in the first picture that he has a bit of shell damage (this is old damage), but once he came out we could tell that he was looking quite healthy! 

Meet Will!

Meet Will!
Will is a male box turtle from Forest Park. We found him hiding under a log next to turtle GMO (more to come on him later!) near a road.


Turtle Stats:
Weight: 565g
Health Rating: 3 (Looking good!)

Finding Will! 

Cleaning up the park on the way.