Using long-term data from two state parks, Biology professor John Roe and his undergraduate researcher Zachery Bayles (Biology) found that winter burrowing behaviors of Eastern Box Turtles protect them from fires.  Even when their overwintering habitats are hit by fire, box turtles suffer little harm, as their burrows confer safe refuge from lethal temperatures.  Roe and Bayles’ eight-year study “Overwintering behavior reduces mortality for a terrestrial turtle in forests managed with prescribed fire” was published in the January 2021 issue of the peer-reviewed journal Forest Ecology and Management.

Radiotelemetry was used to monitor turtles in pine and hardwood forests of Weymouth Woods Sandhills Nature Preserve and in pine and bottomland forests of Lumber River State Park. Weymouth Woods, which has a more extensive stand of longleaf pine, has used prescribed fires for decades to promote habitat and wildlife diversity, while Lumber River State Park has only recently launched a fire management program.  Longleaf pine ecosystems of the southeastern United States are among the most biodiverse systems in the nation, and because of overexploitation, land conversion and suppression of fires, just a small fraction of the landscape still supports longleaf pine.  Fire management is often directed at habitat requirements of endangered species, such as red cockaded woodpeckers.  At the same time, box turtles (Terrapene carolina carolina) that inhabit longleaf pine ecosystems are vulnerable to fire, and because of precipitous declines in populations, the species is listed as a species of conservation priority in more than half of the states it inhabits. 

A total of 57 box turtles were monitored in the two parks -- some as briefly as three months, while others as long as eight years.  Monitoring was performed weekly during the warmer months when the turtles were active, and every two weeks during fall and spring, coinciding with the time when box turtles were starting to enter (fall) or emerge from (spring) their winter burrows.  The turtles were monitored monthly while in their winter burrows.

Importantly, the study found that box turtles were more likely to place their winter burrows in moist habitats, such as hardwood forests near streams, than in drier fire-prone habitats.  All injury and mortality related to fires occurred during warmer months after the turtles had left their winter burrows.  Turtles suffered no observable injury nor mortality from fire when tucked away in their winter burrows.  Roe and Bayles suggest that, to minimize impacts to turtles, prescribed burning could be scheduled for the turtles’ overwintering period as long as this modified schedule does not conflict with management goals better met by burning during warmer months.  Solutions that could address multiple management goals might include alternating seasons and frequency of prescribed fires, establishing fire-free zones, creating small-scale burn units, and establishing longer intervals between fires.

Roe and Bayles’ study has generated valuable information about the ecology and life history of box turtles in longleaf pine ecosystems, including body size, site fidelity, habitat selection, burrowing behaviors, and fire-related injury and mortality.  Their paper’s acknowledgments recognize numerous undergraduate researchers from UNC Pembroke who were involved in data collection over the lifetime of the study:  Carlisha Hall, Zachary Lunn, Maria Chavez, Kris Wild, Casey Haywood, Jordan Smink, Catheryn Wilson, Abbie Hudson, Lucas Baxley, Gareth Hoffmann, Dane Harvey, and Amy Kish.

Dr. John Roe is a herpetologist and an Associate Professor in the UNCP Department of Biology, where he teaches undergraduate courses in Field Zoology and General Zoology, while mentoring students in field and laboratory research.  He has co-authored numerous papers with undergraduate researchers, many of whom have continued their ties to his lab, long after graduation.