Habitat Preference and Management of a Chinese Pond Turtle Population Protected by the Demilitarized Kinmen Islands
Demilitarized zones may aid in the protection of endangered wildlife. We compared relative abundance of the endangered Chinese Pond Turtle (Mauremys reevesii) among water bodies on the Kinmen Islands, a recently demilitarized zone between Taiwan and China. Vegetation and wildlife on the two islands, located 2 km from the Chinese coastline, were degraded by bombardment and military occupation between 1958 and early 2000s. However, natural habitats gradually recovered after military forces withdrew. More than 100 ponds, mostly produced during the occupation to provide freshwater for the soldiers, are now abandoned and provide habitat for aquatic turtles. We sampled 41 ponds and found that presence of M. reevesii was tightly associated with vegetation coverage around the pond, whereas its relative abundance was associated with aquatic vegetation and distance from roads. Comprehensive protection and management of this species should consider both vegetation coverage and road effects in certain vulnerable areas where establishment of a natural reserve might be considered.Abstract
Sample sites and main roads on Kinmen and Lesser Kinmen Islands. Filled and open circles denote ponds with or without Mauremys reevesii, respectively. Further information, including parameters, sympatric species, abundance index, and sex ratio of each pond is available in Appendix 1.
Probability of the presence of Mauremys reevesii predicted by the final logistic regression model.
Abundance of Mauremys reevesii with respect to distance to a main road in ponds with high, medium, and low amounts of aquatic vegetation. Black, gray, and white circles denote ponds with high, medium, and low vegetation coverage in the water, respectively. Lines indicate the abundance estimated from the final regression model.
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