Dataset Information

Hierarchies and Dominance Behaviors in European Pond Turtle (Emys orbicularis galloitalica) Hatchlings in a Controlled Environment.

ABSTRACT: Few species of reptiles are known to establish stable social structures and among these, chelonians provided scarce and conflicting results. Moreover, studies on turtles are usually performed on adult individuals. In this study, we checked whether and when hatchlings of the European Pond Turtle (Emys orbicularis galloitalica) established stable hierarchical structures in their first year of life, whether hierarchies were stable in time and how steady they were. We also verified whether social ranks were associated to the individuals' size. We observed dyadic interactions daily within three small groups of turtles reared in a controlled environment for seven months. After two months, the hatchlings started to interact and progressively established stable hierarchical structures. However, the effectiveness of the three types of observed aggressive behaviors in reversing social ranks was low and the resulting hierarchies were flat. We did not find a significant effect of the turtles' size on their interactions' outcome and hierarchy structure. Our results provide clear evidence of the development and the characteristics of social behaviors in young reptiles in captivity. This study could be a starting point for investigating social structures in wild populations.

SUBMITTER: Masin S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7552232 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Hierarchies and Dominance Behaviors in European Pond Turtle (<i>Emys orbicularis galloitalica</i>) Hatchlings in a Controlled Environment.

Masin Simone S Bani Luciano L Vardanega Davide D Chiodini Norberto N Orioli Valerio V

Animals : an open access journal from MDPI 20200826 9

Few species of reptiles are known to establish stable social structures and among these, chelonians provided scarce and conflicting results. Moreover, studies on turtles are usually performed on adult individuals. In this study, we checked whether and when hatchlings of the European Pond Turtle (<i>Emys orbicularis galloitalica</i>) established stable hierarchical structures in their first year of life, whether hierarchies were stable in time and how steady they were. We also verified whether so ...[more]

PMID: 32859002

Similar Datasets

Project description:BackgroundThe conservation of aquatic and semiaquatic turtles requires knowledge of the area and vegetation structure of habitat used for nesting, and nesting migration route. We aimed to survey the effects of habitat features to the nest site selection, nesting success, and test the possibility of nest site fidelity. Our study was carried out at 10 different nesting areas, with special emphasis on data from returning females in a pond system in Hungary between 2014 and 2017.ResultsMost nesting attempts were found in closed sand steppes, uncharacteristic dry and semi-dry grasslands habitat patches. The principal component analysis (PCA) showed that increased sandy soil cover, sunlight and slope were important variables in nest site choice. The increasing PCA first axis score significantly increased the chance of an emergence. The degradation of open steppe vegetation, occurrence of weeds, invasive and disturbance tolerant species have a negative effect on the selection of nest sites. We observed that 96.55% of nests were located within 20 m south of a pine forest at preferred nest site at pond 5, which provided the right incubation temperature through partial shading. The returning females nested significantly closer to the northern pine forest than the single clutch females. Most probably the returning females already has the necessary experience to select the right nesting site. The individually marked females did not choose new nesting areas during the monitored years which suggests nesting area fidelity, but we did not find nest site fidelity.ConclusionThe maintenance of mosaic habitat structure, slowing down the succession process at the nesting area should be basic priorities in European pond turtle conservation programs. We suggested a spatial and temporal scheduling of land management and agricultural work to the local farmers. If the actual nest site is in an agricultural area, all work should be avoided throughout the year. Agricultural machinery should avoid the migration routes of adult turtles and emerged hatchlings during the concerned period. Under strong predation pressure, predator control should be carried out, and use nest protection.

Dataset Information

Hierarchies and Dominance Behaviors in European Pond Turtle (Emys orbicularis galloitalica) Hatchlings in a Controlled Environment.

Publications

Hierarchies and Dominance Behaviors in European Pond Turtle (<i>Emys orbicularis galloitalica</i>) Hatchlings in a Controlled Environment.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets