Investigating Basking Time Investment in Painted Turtles Using Drone-Based Surveys
– Lauren Dobie, Dr. Gabriel Blouin-Demers (University of Ottawa)
Basking is an essential thermoregulatory behaviour in freshwater turtles, including painted turtles (Chrysemys picta), which rely on external heat sources to regulate body temperature. While basking facilitates key physiological processes, it also requires a time investment that may conflict with other critical activities. Understanding how turtles allocate time to basking is therefore important for studying their behaviour and energy use.
Traditional shore-based observations of basking are limited by poor visibility, observer disturbance, and infrequent sampling. To overcome these challenges, we used drone-based video surveys to quantify basking behaviour in a painted turtle population at Kenauk. We will estimate daily basking duration by tracking the presence of marked individuals in the drone footage at basking sites over time. We predict that females will bask longer than males, particularly during periods of egg development, due to increased energetic demands.
This study highlights the value of drones as a minimally invasive, efficient method for wildlife monitoring. Our findings will improve our understanding of the time-related thermoregulatory costs experienced by painted turtles and offer a useful tool for freshwater turtle population monitoring.
Video credits: Julia Lespine, Conservation Storyteller.
