SREL Reprint #2522

Effects of lead on behavior, growth, and survival of hatchling slider turtles

Joanna Burger, Casey Carruth-Hinchey, Jeanine Ondroff, Michael McMahon
Graduate Program in Ecology and Evolution, Nelson Biological Laboratory, Rutgers University, Piscataway, New Jersey, and Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute, Piscataway, New Jersey, USA

J. Whitfield Gibbons
Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, University of Georgia, Aiken, South Carolina, USA

Michael Gochfeld
Environmental and Community Medicine, and Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute, UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Piscataway, New Jersey, USA

Abstract: In this study the effects of lead on behavioral development of hatchling slider turtles (Trachemys scripta) from the Savannah River Site, near Aiken, SC, were examined. It was of interest to determine whether dose or size affects survival, growth, or behavior. Hatchlings from 1995 showed no significant differences in growth, survival, or behavior between control and lead-injected animals at a dose of 0.05 and 0.1 mg/g (n = 10 per group). In 1996, 48 hatchlings were divided into four groups injected with 0 (control), 0.25, 1, or 2.5 mg/g lead. Few significant differences occurred in growth or size as a function of lead treatment at 4 mo of age, but survival declined markedly as a function of lead dose. Righting response was significantly impaired by lead, time to right was directly related to lead dose. Size also affected behavior, larger hatchlings turned over more quickly and reached cover sooner than did smaller hatchlings.

SREL Reprint #2522

Burger, J., C. Carruth-Hinchey, J. Ondroff, M. McMahon, J. W. Gibbons, and M. Gochfeld. 1998. Effects of lead on behavior, growth, and survival of hatchling slider turtles. Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health 55:495-502.

This information was provided by the University of Georgia's Savannah River Ecology Laboratory (srel.uga.edu).