Research Project

[CourtneyG]

I am doing a research project for my Vertebrate Biodiversity class, going to make this clear now, this is a very simple project. But I am looking to see how variety in diet effects merry aim growth in nails. I would like to know if anyone has done anything similar to this and would like to read this thing. But here is an outline of what I plan. I am going to try for 4 isolated ponds, 2 that are disturbed and 2 that are undisturbed and set traps every 5th day for a minimum of a month(if more time is allowed I will). I am going to trap turtles of the slider species (between 5-8 inches in size will be the ones I record) divid them by gender and record the nail length and how they look, then use nail polish to mark them on their shell with a letter and number, so if I recapture them I can have more comparable data. I am also going to do water test: nitrate, phosphate, calcium, pH, and ammonia. Try to do the test at the same time as last time to prevent to much error. I Am also going to try and gather as many samples from the ponds of what they have to eat and use that to compare, if they have more plants or more protein items to eat and how this will effect their nails, and if there is too much plants for healthy water, like carpet algae covering everything and causing problems. For now this is my rough plan on what to do, I keep adding more to it while still trying to be simple(though it keeps heading toward more complicated and some people I have talked with about this thought it was my dissertation project)

Thanks for the help, and I will keep you guys posted about my research and the final results.

 

[Yvonne G]

Wow. This sounds like a pretty big undertaking. Do you have access to these ponds?

I've taken in a lot of RES in the past, and the only difference I've ever noticed in their claws was between male and female. I've never noticed anything other than that.

Good luck with your project.

 

[Kapidolo Farms]

I am doing a research project for my Vertebrate Biodiversity class, going to make this clear now, this is a very simple project. But I am looking to see how variety in diet effects merry aim growth in nails. I would like to know if anyone has done anything similar to this and would like to read this thing. But here is an outline of what I plan. I am going to try for 4 isolated ponds, 2 that are disturbed and 2 that are undisturbed and set traps every 5th day for a minimum of a month(if more time is allowed I will). I am going to trap turtles of the slider species (between 5-8 inches in size will be the ones I record) divid them by gender and record the nail length and how they look, then use nail polish to mark them on their shell with a letter and number, so if I recapture them I can have more comparable data. I am also going to do water test: nitrate, phosphate, calcium, pH, and ammonia. Try to do the test at the same time as last time to prevent to much error. I Am also going to try and gather as many samples from the ponds of what they have to eat and use that to compare, if they have more plants or more protein items to eat and how this will effect their nails, and if there is too much plants for healthy water, like carpet algae covering everything and causing problems. For now this is my rough plan on what to do, I keep adding more to it while still trying to be simple(though it keeps heading toward more complicated and some people I have talked with about this thought it was my dissertation project)

Thanks for the help, and I will keep you guys posted about my research and the final results.

I'll assume this is an undergrad course? Might not be so complicated. You plan to measure food type and abundance, and body condition based on nail size? YES/NO?

First, maybe consider notching shells, a legacy gift for some future project under the school/teacher, whoever. If your IACUC won't approve that, then nail polish in two places the same designation, one big so you can do a visual recapture without a physical recapture (looking from shore to basking turtles), and a second one that is tucked away on the animal for actual physical recapture. Often animals will pick at stuff on turtle shells.

Follow what others have done for charaterizing food availability and abundance, there are many such papers out there for all manner of aquatic turtles (small, large, hardshell, soft shell, etc.) in all manner of habitat types (ponds, lakes, streams, etc.), as well as other water body users, ducks, fish, etc.

You might try and see if there is a second body condition you could compare the nail size to, like length and weight, to justify or negate the finding by nails alone.

So you will measure water quality parameters, one or more things on the animals themselves (nails, weight, length), and food abundance and availability (that is going to be the time consuming task). Again if your IUCAC will allow it, maybe you could do a stomach flush, and that will be much less survey work, and the gut content are easily broken down into catagories, crustacean, insect, plant, other, etc. Again there is a proponderance of papers on how to do this, and how to catagorize what you find.

If you go out three times, and stomach flush a few turtles each time you can compare the content over time and between water bodies. There is a good chance they won't be statistically different, so then all that data can be pooled. There are exceptions to that, say map turtles, males and females have very different diets, but that seems to be based on adult size.

If the water bodies are used by other students for other studies, maybe someone has already surveyed primary and secondary production in the water bodies, that is a common study.

If you have three or four full field days, you ought to alos count on a day before looking at papers for feild methods and analysis methods, and two days to resolve your data.

It's often done that people will write most of their paper even before they get results, then fill in the results and interpretation based on findings. This may sound sloppy, but it's actualy a rigourous way to keep on point as to what you are doing and why you are doing it.

 

[CourtneyG]

I'll assume this is an undergrad course? Might not be so complicated. You plan to measure food type and abundance, and body condition based on nail size? YES/NO?

First, maybe consider notching shells, a legacy gift for some future project under the school/teacher, whoever. If your IACUC won't approve that, then nail polish in two places the same designation, one big so you can do a visual recapture without a physical recapture (looking from shore to basking turtles), and a second one that is tucked away on the animal for actual physical recapture. Often animals will pick at stuff on turtle shells.

Follow what others have done for charaterizing food availability and abundance, there are many such papers out there for all manner of aquatic turtles (small, large, hardshell, soft shell, etc.) in all manner of habitat types (ponds, lakes, streams, etc.), as well as other water body users, ducks, fish, etc.

You might try and see if there is a second body condition you could compare the nail size to, like length and weight, to justify or negate the finding by nails alone.

So you will measure water quality parameters, one or more things on the animals themselves (nails, weight, length), and food abundance and availability (that is going to be the time consuming task). Again if your IUCAC will allow it, maybe you could do a stomach flush, and that will be much less survey work, and the gut content are easily broken down into catagories, crustacean, insect, plant, other, etc. Again there is a proponderance of papers on how to do this, and how to catagorize what you find.

If you go out three times, and stomach flush a few turtles each time you can compare the content over time and between water bodies. There is a good chance they won't be statistically different, so then all that data can be pooled. There are exceptions to that, say map turtles, males and females have very different diets, but that seems to be based on adult size.

If the water bodies are used by other students for other studies, maybe someone has already surveyed primary and secondary production in the water bodies, that is a common study.

If you have three or four full field days, you ought to alos count on a day before looking at papers for feild methods and analysis methods, and two days to resolve your data.

It's often done that people will write most of their paper even before they get results, then fill in the results and interpretation based on findings. This may sound sloppy, but it's actualy a rigourous way to keep on point as to what you are doing and why you are doing it.

I was going to use other body signs than just their nails to show if there was a history of problems with that animal or how the quality and length of nails can be linked with other things as well, but I will not go into to much detail since this is an undergraduate class(the GTA even said keep it very simple) and the water quality, I know they might not care about narrow water parameters, but their food sources might.

I probably will not be able to give a nice number on abundance of food, since I am just taking a small sampling from each pond to ID the food and to just say one plant or animal was more dominant or the plants showed nutrient deficiency(which also can probably link to slow or poor nail growth)

I also chose the nail since it grows quicker than scutes do, and nails can be another way up evaluate health.

I will not be able to flush stomachs, the projects have to be as minimally invasive as possible.

My project can still change as well, I might not be able to do these multiple visits and may just have to do a T chart based on average length of gender.

One pond I am using has been used beforehand, and I am going to check our library out and see if anyone has done something on it.

The nail polish I was planning on putting on the plastron, or if I did it on the carapace, a dark polish that is still easy for me to see.

Also if I forgot to put this in there, I am looking at the yellow and red sliders that are found here where I live.

 

[144 Grandpa Turtle]

Courtney G
Your research project sounds very interesting if you do 1/2 of what they have said . Good luck .


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[CourtneyG]

Update on the project. I only got two ponds to use unfortubatly. Also I am only measuring the nail growth of the front right and back right foot and dividing it up by sex and which pond they were caught. I have had no luck in getting any sliders(a lot of stink pots and bass though), just one little slider who had a 6.5cm plastron. The weather getting cooler they are not wanting to take the bait I put out. I did catch this 20 pounds of mean and had to cut him out and not get bitten, especially when his head got stuck.

 

[Moozillion]

Oh, WOW!!! Now THERE'S a net full of trouble!!! Better you than me!

 

[Anthony P]

Aww, what a handsome shnappah

 

[CourtneyG]

Well I am going to end my research project on the sliders. I have only caught one and the weather has gotten cold very fast.

 

[Moozillion]

Bummer.

 

[CourtneyG]

Bummer.

Well it might be something to do in the future at least.