We are a citizens science initiative aimed at the conservation of box turtles and their habitats. Additional photos can be sent as well.
The Bay County Box Turtle Project is a citizen science initiative aimed at the conservation of box turtles and their habitats in neighborhoods of Bay County, Florida. This page is meant to provide information about the project and to enlist the help of our neighbors in collecting scientific data on resident Gulf Coast Box Turtles. You can find additional information, and follow posts about the pro
ject here on our page. Box turtles, like all residents in Bay County, are adapting to the dramatic changes caused by Hurricane Michael. Box turtles seek shelter in the shaded, brushy cover of wood piles, thick vegetation, and shrubbery- habitat features that have been affected by the storm and its aftermath. We believe that a thriving box turtle population indicates that ample green spaces exist throughout a neighborhood to provide food and shelter, and pathways for turtles and other wildlife. As we clean-up, rebuild, and replant our neighborhoods, we intend to monitor the status of box turtles as a biological indicator of the recovery of the natural elements that make Bay County neighborhoods a unique and special place for all. Our Geographic Focus- We are currently tagging turtles and requesting your sighting reports in: The Cove (Panama City), College Point (Lynn Haven), and Lower Grand Lagoon (Panama City Beach). Turtles are measured, photographed, and tagged by a small group of professional biologists, and then released at the point of capture. These activities are being conducted under a scientific collecting permit issued by the state of Florida, permit -19-00012B. Each turtle is given a small vinyl tag with a unique 4-digit code (e.g., M233) and is given a name for future identification. Tags will be located in the rear portion of the carapace (top shell), and are about the size of a tic-tac. TO REPORT A TURTLE SIGHTING- If you encounter a turtle and have the time, we encourage you to check for a tag (without handling the turtle), obtain a close-up photo of the top of the shell (i.e., carapace) and to report the sighting using our online survey form accessed here. Your reports are important to the study, whether the turtle is tagged or not. We also request sighting reports of turtle mortalities (e.g., turtles killed on the road or elswehere)- an unfortunate but occasional occurrence. https://forms.gle/QJBRTsVebFAVvL9d6
Alternatively, sighting reports can be submitted to the Bay County Box Turtle Project hotline as a text message, for Cove sightings text to (850) 290-3969, for College Point sightings text to (850) 296-2551 If reporting via text to the hotline please provide the following information: YOUR NAME (optional), DATE, TIME, NEAREST ADDRESS, TAG ID (if present), PHOTO of TAG, and at least 1 good close up PHOTO of TOP OF SHELL. Sighting reports submitted by the public will be entered into our database on a regular basis; once entered your report will be viewable in the “Turtle Mapper”. TO VIEW COLLECTED TURTLE DATA via the “TURTLE MAPPER”- This online mapper allows the public to examine some of the turtle data collected on an interactive map. Individual records can be accessed, and filters can be applied to display records for a turtle by its name or tag number-
WHEN and BY WHOM are the BOX TURTLES TAGGED? When a member of the tagging team encounters a turtle, the animal is measured, photographed, and tagged. This information and other details associated with the sighting are recorded and entered into a database. Tagging activities are only permitted for members of the tagging team, however, anyone that encounters a turtle can inspect it and submit a sighting report, whether it is tagged or not. If you do encounter an untagged turtle, please do not detain it. Chances are good that it will be encountered by a team member in the future and tagged. Your records, particularly the photo of the shell that you submit, will be analyzed using image matching software to assimilate all records of the individual that have been submitted. Questions or Comments about the Project? Please email them to us at- [email protected]
In summer 1967, eastern box turtle (Terrapene carolina) number 7 was marked at Powdermill Nature Reserve. This turtle wasn’t seen again until summer 2004 and summer 2009 when it was spotted in nearly the same place digging nests. Last week, the bird banding crew found her digging another nest almost exactly where it was reported in 2004 and 2009.
The crew carefully and quickly noted the turtle’s markings and were able to match it with the data from her initial marking, and left her alone to continue her egg laying activities.
In 1967, this turtle was aged as “22 +/- years old” indicating that she was probably already two decades old, and probably hatched in 1945. Although ~79 years old seems like a long time for a small animal to live, box turtles are reported to live longer than 100 years!
05/08/2024
This hatchling appeared in the backyard near our resident female Pauline. I figure it must have hatched this spring.
03/17/2024
Happy St. Patrick’s Day- box turtles are on the loose, and we want to let you know Bay County Box Turtle Project is still going strong. 2024 is our 6th year of monitoring! Best of luck on your next turtle spotting adventure. To learn more about how to report box turtle sightings please visit our page, and inspect the pinned post at the top.
10/26/2023
Fare thee well, Cove gopher tortoise! An ongoing infrastructure improvement project was threatening this female tortoise’s home burrow, so the City was notified. The project was halted while the tortoise could be captured and the burrow scoped for additional inhabitants. The state FWC is relocating her to the Econfina wildlife management area where several other gopher tortoises will provide company. Thanks to Lydia for the alert, and to everyone who has been involved and concerned for the welfare of this creature. It is indeed the same gopher tortoise first found in the Cove last November.
06/02/2023
Let's all do our part to prevent turtle mortalities on our roadways. One of the best ways to do this is to not tailgate. For every 10 mph of speed, keep a full car length (10 ft minimum) between you and the car in front of you. If you're driving 50 mph, that means at least 5 cars could fit in between you and the car up ahead. Maintaining this distance will give you time to see and react to avoid hitting a turtle crossing the road. Every time you catch yourself tailgating, think about the turtles!
05/23/2023
HAPPY WORLD TURTLE DAY!
SAVANNAH, Ga. (WSAV) – May 23 is World Turtle Day, and you may be wondering: What can you do to help the turtles in your area? Here are five ways you can make your life more turtle-friendly. Be car…
05/19/2023
In celebration of WILD TURTLES, we will be at the Trash Market in St. Andrews this Saturday from 6-9 pm crafting box turtles and spreading the news about the Bay County Box Turtle Project. Come see us! We'll be inside Gypsybeach Treasured Kreations.
05/17/2023
A new turtle tagger recently asked me, "At what size do we start calling females adults instead of juveniles?" The answer is, no one knows when Gulf Coast Box turtles become old enough to reproduce. It's one of the many questions the Bay County Box Turtle Project hopes to answer with your sighting reports. Every box turtle sighting is important but the more information you can include in the comments section, the more we will know! One of our turtle taggers collected a young road-killed box turtle last week and discovered she was carrying eggs. This report will be instrumental in determining the size at which females become sexually mature. The turtle was only 5,5" long and each of her eggs was 1.5" long. By counting the growth rings on the scutes, she was estimated to be 8 years old. It's very possible, these were the first eggs she produced.
05/16/2023
The size of a box turtle helps us determine whether it is a juvenile or adult but biologists currently have only two methods to age live turtles:
1. Counting the rings on the scutes. Because the rings on the scutes don't necessarily equal one year (sometimes 2 rings can equal a year), this method of aging can be highly inaccurate and can vary from turtle to turtle. It's not always easy to distinguish the rings either, so it's a very subjective tool. Then, once a turtle gets to 20 or more growth rings, the wear on the rings smooths them out making them impossible to distinguish. Try counting the rings on the turtles in the photos and you will understand the challenges involved in using this method to age turtles!
2. Mark and recapture. This method is by far the most accurate of the two but requires long-term studies. This is why we want to keep the Bay County Box Turtle Project robust and active for many years to come. As a mark and recapture study, the more data we collect and the longer we continue, the better our results will be.
Get your kids and grandkids involved now and encourage them to continue this new family tradition!
05/10/2023
The Picture Perfect Photo. An important aspect of our Project is to be able to identify individual turtles. We do this by comparing the markings on their shell because once a turtle is several years old, its markings don't change very much through the years. With over 3,000 carapace photos in the database now, comparing photos manually is no longer practical so we are using an app that does it for us. It's an amazing tool that saves us many hours of work. However, there is a catch - the photos have to be nearly perfect to ensure a match. Photos that are out of focus, don't have the turtle centered front to back and side to side, or show glare or shadows on the shell are photos that can prevent a match from being made. The same can happen if dirt, plants, or other objects are obscuring any part of the shell. We're asking everyone to keep this in mind when snapping that photo! Check under each photo for hints and tips. THANKS!
Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Bay County Box Turtle Project posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.
The Bay County Box Turtle Project is a citizens science initiative aimed at the conservation of box turtles and their habitats in neighborhoods of Bay County, Florida. This page is meant to provide information about the project and to enlist the help of our neighbors in collecting scientific data on resident Gulf Coast Box Turtles.
Box turtles, like all residents in Bay County, are adapting to the dramatic changes caused by Hurricane Michael. Box turtles seek shelter in the shaded, brushy cover of wood piles, thick vegetation, and shrubbery- habitat features that have been affected by the storm and its aftermath. We believe that a thriving box turtle population indicates that ample green spaces exist throughout a neighborhood to provide food and shelter, and pathways for turtles and other wildlife. As we clean-up, rebuild, and replant our neighborhoods, we intend to monitor the status of box turtles as a biological indicator of the recovery of the natural elements that make Bay County neighborhoods a unique and special place for all.
Our Geographic Focus- We are currently tagging turtles and requesting your sighting reports in: The Cove (Panama City), College Point (Lynn Haven), and Lower Grand Lagoon (Panama City Beach).
Turtles are measured, photographed, and tagged by a small group of professional biologists, and then released at the point of capture. These activities are being conducted under a scientific collecting permit issued by the state of Florida, permit #LSSC-19-00012. Each turtle is given a small vinyl tag with a unique 4-digit code (e.g., M233) and is given a name for future identification.
TO REPORT A TURTLE SIGHTING- If you encounter a turtle and have the time, we encourage you to check for a tag (without handling the turtle), obtain a close-up photo of the top of the shell (i.e., carapace) and to report the sighting using our online survey form accessed here. Your reports are important to the study, whether the turtle is tagged or not. We also request sighting reports of turtle mortalities (e.g., turtles killed on the road or elswehere)- an unfortunate but occasional occurrence.
Sighting reports submitted by the public will be entered into our database on a regular basis; once entered your report will be viewable in the “Turtle Mapper”.
TO VIEW COLLECTED TURTLE DATA via the “TURTLE MAPPER”- This online mapper allows the public to examine some of the turtle data collected on an interactive map. Individual records can be accessed, and filters can be applied to display records for a turtle by its name or tag number-
WHEN and BY WHOM are the BOX TURTLES TAGGED? When a member of the tagging team encounters a turtle, the animal is measured, photographed, and tagged. This information and other details associated with the sighting are recorded and entered into a database. Tagging activities are only permitted for members of the tagging team, however, anyone that encounters a turtle can inspect it and submit a sighting report, whether it is tagged or not. If you do encounter an untagged turtle, please do not detain it. Chances are good that it will be encountered by a team member in the future and tagged. Your records, particularly the photo of the shell that you submit, will be analyzed using image matching software to assimilate all records of the individual that have been submitted.
