Dr. Anna Thonis, an ecologist and herpetologist at Stony Brook University, is beginning a new research project on the eastern box turtle at the end of May.
The Friends of the Long Pond Greenbelt are fundraising for the study, which includes the Long Pond Greenbelt, a unique ecosystem between Bridgehampton and Sag Harbor.
The project will also track turtles on Staten Island, in Queens and at the Brookhaven National Laboratory.
“Dr. Thonis is proposing a long-term ecological monitoring study, with the goal of tracking eastern box turtle population trends and demographic changes over time,” according to FLPG’s appeal for help raising just shy of $8,500 for the study.
Dr. Thonis’s initial research project, in 2016, studied “Eastern Box Turtle Shell Damage and Health in an Urban Landscape.” It was published in the journal Chelonian Conservation and Biology in 2023.
The follow-up study this summer will examine how urbanization of our area affects life history traits, like growth rate, longevity and home range size, and demographic parameters, including population size and survival rates “along an urbanized gradient in New York,” according to the abstract for the study. Wildlife detection dogs will assist with the work.
“This research will help further our understanding of the ecological dynamics of eastern box turtles and contribute to the broader field of evolutionary ecology and the environmental influences on populations in urbanized landscapes,” said Dr. Thonis in her proposal for the project.
Friends of the Long Pond Greenbelt are collecting donations for the study online here, or through check by mail to: FLPG, P.O. Box 1130, Bridgehampton, NY. 11932.
And remember, it’s almost prime turtle crossing season! Watch out for turtles traveling on local roads, particularly in May and June, as they return to their nesting sites.
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