A TURTLE COMMUNITY ON 9-MILE ISLAND IN THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI RIVER NATIONAL 
WILDLIFE AND FISH REFUGE

Phylicia B. Schwartz, Jeremy W. Meyer, Alan R. Butler, Matthew O’Brien, 
Frances A. Eggers, and Gerald L. Zuercher

Department of Natural and Applied Sciences, University of Dubuque, 2000 
University Avenue, Dubuque, IA 52001.

We live-trapped river turtles on 9-Mile Island in Pool 12 of the Mississippi 
River as part of a larger river turtle assessment project.  We captured 58 
individuals representing five species during our study: 43 Chrysemys picta 
(painted turtle), 10 Graptemys geographica (common map turtle), 2 Chelydra 
serpentine (snapping turtle), 2 Apalone spinifera (spiny softshell turtle), 
and 1 Trachemys scripta (red-eared slider).  The majority of captured C. 
picta were adult males (58%) followed by adult females (30%) and juvenile 
males (12%).  Despite maintaining traps in the same locations, we were 
successful in recapturing only 2 C. picta during the course of our study.  
The successful capture of an adult male T. scripta is noteworthy.  The 
presence of T. scripta in this year’s sample argues that future sampling 
should be done in an effort to document a possible range expansion as well as 
temporal changes in river turtle community structure.  We will provide a 
summary of our results and compare morphological data between adult male, 
adult female, and juvenile male C. picta.

Keywords:  Apalone spinifera, Chelydra serpentina, Chrysemys picta, Iowa, 
Mississippi River

Presenting Author:
Phylicia B. Schwartz
Department of Natural and Applied Sciences
University of Dubuque
2000 University Avenue
Dubuque, IA 52001
Phone: 563-589-3152
Fax: 563-589-3688
pschwart@dbq.edu

Poster

Presenter is a student

No larger space necessary