Because of the decline of box turtles on Long Island, a field study was done in 2000 between May and November. The purpose was to determine how turtles use space, habitats and if natural and artificial barriers impede their movement. Previously, it was thought that home range diameters for box turtles did not exceed a few hundred feet.

Twenty box turtles were equipped with small radio transmitters and were tracked almost daily by volunteers, interns and staff. Often the researchers had to battle dense stands of briar to make a daily visual sighting of all twenty turtles. At each location, a variety of habitat and turtle characteristics were recorded.

As all the information collected is being analyzed, some interesting patterns are emerging. Some turtles have one center of activity where most of their time is spent. However, many turtles have multiple activity centers. Some of the turtles have small home ranges of only ten acres but others have large home ranges of over two hundred acres. Turtles cross a variety of barriers in their movements including fire breaks, streams, paved roads and even railroad tracks. The habits of the box turtles change according to the seasons from grass to shrub to forest.

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