Stinkpot (Sternotherus odoratus) COSEWIC assessment and status report: chapter 8

Limiting Factors and Threats

Turtle egg and hatchling survival are highly vulnerable to temperature extremes and periods of unusually high rainfall or drought. Because stinkpots nest close to the shoreline (Lindsay 1965; Ernst 1986; Edmonds unpubl. data), abnormally high water levels after the nesting season can drown eggs. Increased motorboat traffic and fishing can increase mortality rates of adults. The most significant threat to stinkpot populations is habitat destruction; primarily shoreline development, wetland drainage and pollution (Ernst et al. 1994). Shoreline development can eliminate nesting sites which are limited, particularly in the cooler parts of the species’ Canadian range in central Ontario. Low water levels are usually of little threat to stinkpots because they prefer shallow water. However, they are also very vulnerable to desiccation when they are out of water (Ernst 1968), and they cannot survive in completely drained areas. If they can, stinkpots will move overland from drained areas to nearby bodies of water (Ernst 1986). However, such dispersal is limited because the stinkpot rapidly desiccates when out of water, and because this species is extremely awkward on land and also vulnerable to a wide range of predators owing to its small size and ludicrously slow and clumsy locomotion. Drainage of a common hibernation site can kill a large proportion of a population. For example, drainage of a canal in Ohio eliminated approximately 450 hibernating stinkpots (Thomas and Trautman 1937). Habitat modification, combined with intense fishing is thought be the cause of the extirpation of the stinkpot around the city of Hamilton (Lamond 1994).

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