. The Canadian field-naturalist. 1994 Power, Herman, Kerekes: Distribution of Blanding's Turtle 19. Figure 1. Water colour and number of individual Blanding's turtles captured (1987-1988, n = 60) in Kejimkujik National Park, Nova Scotia (see Table 1 for pH and water colour at specific capture loca- tions (1-15)). coloured water body. Comparison of historical records with our observations show that two males shifted their home ranges among these areas, moving minimum distances of 5 and km over their life- time. Such shifts may occur abruptly. In less than 14 days one radio-tagged male in o
. The Canadian field-naturalist. 1994 Power, Herman, Kerekes: Distribution of Blanding's Turtle 19. Figure 1. Water colour and number of individual Blanding's turtles captured (1987-1988, n = 60) in Kejimkujik National Park, Nova Scotia (see Table 1 for pH and water colour at specific capture loca- tions (1-15)). coloured water body. Comparison of historical records with our observations show that two males shifted their home ranges among these areas, moving minimum distances of 5 and km over their life- time. Such shifts may occur abruptly. In less than 14 days one radio-tagged male in our study moved a minimum of 3 km overland to establish residency (for at least one year following) in a small unnamed lake (Number 28, Figure 1) with exceptionally dark water (240 ). This lake is approximately km from the home range that he used in 1987 as well as in previous years for which there are records. These shifts, involving movements through less coloured waters, indicate active selection of areas character- ized by highly coloured waters. It is unlikely that the parallel between distribu- tion of turtles and highly coloured waters is an arti- fact of biased sampling. Historical observations did not result from systematic sampling but rather were incidental to other field work. There is no indica- tion that that work was carried out disproportion- ately in highly coloured waters. As well, the inde- pendently conducted survey of breeding waterfowl in 1988 and 1989 revealed no incidental sightings of E. blandingii in clear water bodies (Table 2). Blanding's Turtles in Maine also prefer dark waters, particularly those associated with shallow, heavily vegetated, slow-moving streams (Graham 1992). Why are turtles associated with highly coloured waters and peaty soils in the Park? Blanding's Turtles are primarily carnivorous (Cahn 1937; Conant 1938; Lagler 1943; Carr 1952; Graham and Doyle 1977; Kofron and Schreiber 1985), and in Nova Scotia con- sume aquatic macro-
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