Male response to female chemical signals in Painted Turtles (Chrysemys picta)

Abstract

Turtles and other sexually reproducing animals require communication between males and females to identify each other. Although chemical signals are widely used by reptiles to communicate beneficial information for both sender and receiver, chemical communication studies in turtles are rare. I recorded the amount of time a male Painted Turtle (Chrysemys picta) spent in three sections of a pool: a section with female a Painted Turtle, a section with a male Painted Turtle, and an empty (control) section. Each section contained an opaque, plastic box with drilled holes that allowed chemical signals to be exchanged but prohibited the turtles from seeing into or out of the box. I completed 27 trials and recorded the time male turtles spent in each section of the pool (male, female, or empty). ANOVA and a Tukey’s test showed that male Painted Turtles spent significantly more time in the section of the pool containing the female Painted Turtle than in the control section of the pool. No statistically significant difference was found for the time male Painted Turtles spent in sections of the pool containing another male vs. a female, and no statistically significant difference was found between the time spent in sections of the pool containing another male vs. an empty pool section. The preference of the female section over the empty sections shows communication through chemical signals in Painted Turtles. Developing a better understanding of turtle communication may help improve the success of captive breeding programs for these animals. Turtles are relatively long-lived animals. Studying such organisms requires long-term research as any population changes may take many years to observe. Studies focused on changes in turtle populations over time, especially within ponds, are rare. Nall and Thomas (2009) set turtle traps in two Lyon County, KS, ponds in 2007, and I set traps in the same ponds again in 2015; Painted Turtles and Red-eared Sliders (Tracheyms scripta) are found in both of these ponds. Species, sex, and plastron length were recorded for each turtle captured. Painted Turtles were more abundant than Red-eared Sliders in both ponds during both years. None of the individual turtles caught in 2007 were captured in 2015. Chi-square tests revealed that the proportion of male, female, and juvenile Painted Turtles varied significantly from 2007 to 2015 for both Gladfelter Pond and Fence Pond. However, low capture numbers of Red-eared Sliders at either pond prohibited a chi-square test to determine changes in the population. While a chi-square test could not be completed with meaningful results for Red-eared Sliders, the percentage of the population made up by juvenile turtles decreased in both species. T-tests revealed that there were no significant changes in mean plastron lengths for Painted Turtles at either pond. Again, too few Red-eared Sliders were captured at either pond to complete a t-test.