EFFECTS OF ROADKILL MORTALITY ON THE WESTERN PAINTED TURTLE (CHRYSEMYS PICTA BELLII) IN THE MISSION VALLEY, WESTERN MONTANA

The author monitored a population of western painted turtles (Chrysemys picta bellii) in the pothole region of the Mission Valley (western Montana) in response to local concern about intense roadkill mortality on U.S. Highway 93 and a proposal to widen the highway. Road-killed turtles were collected from May through August 1995 along a 7.4 km section of US 93 adjacent to the Ninepipe National Wildlife Refuge. Femurs were removed from each dead on the road (DOR) turtle for laboratory age determination. Turtle mortalities spanned the monitored section of US 93 and occurred throughout the field season. A total of 205 turtles were found DOR. Additional turtles were probably killed but did not remain on the road for collection; others were killed outside of the field season. The DOR turtles ranged from 0 to 26 years old. Of the DOR turtles, 43% were adult males, 26% were adult females, and 31% (including juveniles) could not be sexed. Seven gravid females were found DOR (13% of the specimens known to be female). A comparison was made of age distributions of live turtles in ponds near the road to age distributions in ponds further from the road. In addition, population densities were estimated in these ponds and it was found that population density increases with distance from the highway. Management recommendations are suggested based on roadkill data and literature review.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Also published by Florida DOT as a paper in FL-ER-58-96, "Trends in Addressing Transportation Related Wildlife Mortality: Proceedings of the Transportation Related Wildlife Mortality Seminar (June 1996).
• Corporate Authors:

  Florida Department of Transportation

  Haydon Burns Building, 605 Suwanee Street
  Tallahassee, FL  United States  32301

  Federal Highway Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Authors:
  • Fowle, S C
• Conference:
  • Transportation and Wildlife: Reducing Wildlife Mortality and Improving Wildlife Passageways Across Transportation Corridors
  • Location: Orlando, Florida
  • Date: 1996-4-30 to 1996-5-2
• Publication Date: 1996-8

Language

• English

Media Info

• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: p. 205-223

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Fatalities; Recommendations; Traffic mitigation; Wildlife
• Identifier Terms: United States Highway 93
• Uncontrolled Terms: Mitigation; Mortality; Turtles
• Geographic Terms: Montana
• Subject Areas: Design; Environment; Highways; Planning and Forecasting; Research; I21: Planning of Transport Infrastructure;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00745666
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: FHWA-PD-96-041
• Files: TRIS, USDOT, STATEDOT
• Created Date: Feb 2 1998 12:00AM