Diet: Wood turtles feed on a variety of foods found on the forest floor including slugs, berries and mushrooms. The mushrooms they feed on especially, are often poisonous like fly amanita which contains the neurotoxin ibotenic acid (C₅H₆N₂O₄). Unaffected by many toxins, wood turtles are believed to instead sequester the mushroom’s poison in their flesh as a defence against predators. In summer months, their bright orange colour may help act as a warning of this toxicity. Mushrooms are the fruiting body of the fungus and are used to release spores that will eventually become another organism. These spores have been found to survive the digestive tract of wood turtles, amongst other species, and can be spread through their faeces. Although not their primary method of spreading spores, it’s suggested that the edibility of many mushrooms is to promote this method of dispersal.
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Conservation: North American wood turtles are considered Endangered provincially in Ontario, Federally Threatened in Canada and internationally by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). This is largely due to habitat loss and fragmentation, along with illegal poaching. Poaching has become the largest threat to these turtles due to their curious nature, bright colours and temperament, making them highly sought after on the black market. This desire for wood turtles has caused entire populations to become extirpated with all if not most breeding adults collected and sold. Many of these sold turtles are smuggled overseas to places such as Europe and Asia to fuel their pet trade while many others remain in North America in private collections. Wood turtles have a small population to begin with due to the majority of their population becoming fragmented or destroyed due to agriculture, poaching on top of this has caused them to be considered Endangered almost everywhere they are present.
Sources:
Elliott, T F., et al. "Reptilian Mycophagy: A Global Review of Mutually Beneficial Associations Between Reptiles and Macrofungi." Mycosphere, University of New England, 1 Oct. 2018, mycosphere.org/pdf/MYCOSPHERE_10_1_18.pdf. Accessed 3 Sept. 2022. Visconti, Evan. "Development and Poaching Erasing Years of Work to Protect Wood Turtles in Virginia." Virginia Mercury, 23 May 2022, www.virginiamercury.com/2022/05/23/development-and-poaching-erasing-years-of-work-to-protect-wood-turtles-in-virginia/. Accessed 3 Sept. 2022. "Wood Turtle." Ontario Nature, 2022, ontarionature.org/programs/community-science/reptile-amphibian-atlas/wood-turtle/#:~:text=In%20Ontario%2C%20wood%20turtles%20live,that%20border%20their%20aquatic%20habitat.. Accessed 3 Sept. 2022. "Wood Turtle." Red List, International Union for the Conservation of Nature, 2022, www.iucnredlist.org/species/4965/97416259. Accessed 3 Sept. 2022. Ethical Consideration: Due to the nature of the project, photos taken of wild individuals are not permitted to be shared, therefor photos of Maple, the captive wood turtle at Scales Nature Park are used as a placeholder.
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