Simon, Nicole

The research conducted for the Ontario Turtle Conservation Centre was completed with the purpose of understanding the dangers that the turtle population of Ontario faces. Spatial analysis was conducted on the 2016 intake records for the OTCC. This analysis was completed using ArcGIS 10.1 which allowed the construction of a number of maps to be completed. A literature review was conducted outlining the different methodologies used to assign turtles to age categories. Within the literature review other wildlife Centres were contacted to obtain information on how they perform age categorization. These methods were compared to the OTCC and it was discovered that the best method would be to track turtles from hatchling, but this is not always possible. Analysis of the intake records were then completed with the goal of determining size by species and prior injury data. The size by species analysis yielded numerous graphs depicting the average size by species as well as age, and sex. Unfortunately, there was not enough data available to make usable inferences on prior injury data. This information would be crucial for maintaining mitigation or even implementing it. A task of the project included developing a digital intake tool to allow for more consistent record keeping. The completion of the digital intake tool now includes a separate section for prior injury to allow for prior injury analysis to be conducted.