Two other subdivisions of the main pasture—the house pond area and the southern ravine area—although not so distinct as the northwest corner area in terms of limiting barriers, nevertheless constituted separate areas of favorable habitat, each of which contained a number of individual home ranges. Although the two areas were not far apart, but little movement was observed of turtles from one area to the other. The home range of only one turtle, an adult female, was known to include parts of both areas.
Unbroken expanses of tall grass seem not to be optimum habitat. The crest of the hill at the Damm Farm ([Pl. 17, Fig. 1]) was an area of more or less homogeneous grassy habitat. Turtles were seldom found on the crest of the hill although this area was as thoroughly searched for turtles as any other area. Known home ranges of nearly every individual observed were on either one of the sides of the hill but not on both sides.
At several places on the border of the pasture, turtles were able to move freely into cultivated areas but seldom did so except for nesting. Trailing records show that most of the turtles that entered one of the cultivated areas returned again to the pasture.
Ornate box turtles seem to find places of shelter by trial and error along regularly used routes of travel in their home ranges. The individuals that I studied never returned to the same forms, and seldom returned to the same natural burrows and dens. Probably foraging, basking, and watering sites are found also by trial and error.
Stickel (1950:375) placed considerable importance on the occurrence of transient turtles in populations of T. carolina; in estimating population density, she added to her study area a peripheral strip, half as wide as the average, estimated home range, to account for turtles that had home ranges only partly within the study area. The study area used by Stickel had no natural boundaries, as habitat conditions on all sides were essentially the same as those of the study area itself. The pasture at the Damm Farm, on the contrary, is a relatively isolated area of natural grassland, bordered by rock fences and cultivated fields. I believe that most of the box turtles found on the pasture were permanent residents there. Individual box turtles at the Damm Farm seemingly occupied but one home range and it did not change from year to year. Populations of T. ornata in areas less isolated than the Damm Farm, like the populations of T. carolina studied by Stickel (loc. cit.), could be expected to have a higher percentage of transient individuals and individuals with multiple or changing home ranges. Henry S. Fitch told me that he considered most of the individuals of T. ornata that were captured only once at the Reservation were transients.
Several females at the Damm Farm traveled long distances from their home ranges to nest but other females nested within their known or estimated home ranges. Seemingly a complex of environmental factors, including soil texture, weather, availability of water, and possibly the urge for random wandering in the breeding season, governs the distances traveled by gravid females and the ultimate selection of a satisfactory nesting site. Females, because of their more extensive travels in the nesting season, seem more likely than males to have multiple or changing home ranges. Males of T. ornata did not noticeably alter the extent or pattern of their movements in the breeding season. Hibernacula, unlike nesting sites, were within the known or estimated home ranges of all individuals studied.
Fig. 28. The movements of an adult (non-gravid) female of T. o. ornata in the house pond area at the Damm Farm during a period of 24 days in July, 1955 (solid line), and a period of three days (broken line) in July, 1956. Solid dots represent the points where the turtle was found as her thread trail was mapped; hollow symbols represent points of recapture when no trailing thread was attached to the turtle.
The actual home range of almost every individual studied, even of those individuals for which the most data were available, probably differed at least slightly from the observed or estimated home range. One adult female, for example, was captured six times in two years within a radius of approximately 50 feet. Another female was found 2780 feet from her last point of capture. These last two records were regarded as unusual; when they were grouped with records of the 44 individuals mentioned above, the average radius of home range for the entire group was much larger (327 feet).
