Schulte-Hostedde AI, Mazal Z, Jardine CM, Gagnon J. Enhanced access to anthropogenic food waste is related to hyperglycemia in raccoons (Procyon lotor). Conserv Physiol. 2018 Jun 13;6(1):coy026. doi: 10.1093/conphys/coy026. PMID: 29992022; PMCID: PMC6025200. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6025200/#coy026C24

The study makes a hypothesis that if glucose metabolism, adiposity, and body weight are affected by consumption of anthropogenic food waste, then they predict that raccoons with greater access will have higher body mass and evidence of hyperglyclemia than those with reduced access. Samples were collected from 3 different location types in Southern Ontario. Each location type had varying access to anthropogenic food: one being the Toronto Zoo grounds, with access to garbage bins, on site restaurants, etc. Moderate access sites included 3 conservation areas in Grand River Watershed, Ontario in 2012. People do not live in these areas but in close proximity residential areas. Food was only available during weekly municipal garbage collection. Low access food waste site was a farming area in Grand River Watershed, Ontario in 2012.

They limited analysis of the raccoon samples to 60 adult raccoons sampled during the months of July and August to account for seasonal variations in body weight. Their estimates of consumption were qualitative and based on potential access to food, not specific bodily measurements. More precise estimates of consumption, for example, use of stable isotopes for corn, would help determine the relative consumption of processed foods.

With the sampling of raccoons, I believe they could’ve gone further by maybe doing a longer study about from the beginning of their life or different age brackets to see if it affects different groups. It would expand the scope to examine raccoons in different seasons, not just July-August, which restricts variation in body mass. Their distribution of females to males was also highly varied in each access level. For example, there were 5 males selected for the low access area and 16 for the high access area. Because there was a higher amount sampled in the high access area, there is more variability that can be accounted for and more reliable statistical analysis. There is a slight variation in weight between females and males, which was significant in the study. There was no interaction between sex and the effect of access to anthropogenic food waste on body weight. In the future, there should be more even sample sizes to accurately measure this.

No significant difference was observed between the mean body weights of the raccoons with moderate and low access to anthropogenic food waste. In this study, they assumed that variation in body mass would be the result of differences in fat mass, but there could be differences in body size or composition instead. Their are many different ways to look at body weight distribution. Raccoons with high access to anthropogenic food waste had significantly higher glycemia levels than those with moderate and low access to anthropogenic food waste. Leptin was not significantly different among sites nor was the body mass and leptin. With other wildlife groups, such as black bear and white tail deer, leptin has had both significant and insignificant results of correlation with adiposity (fat deposition). More studies are needed to understand the impact of lepin in different wildlife groups.

Overall, there is not enough research on human activities and wildlife nutrition beyond ecological and life history consequences. There needs to be more focus on how these diets affect the endocrine and metabolic functions of these species. This may have implications for human’s food sources containing more pesticides, as well as disposal methods as waste is only increasing. It makes me wonder what solutions to wildlife access to anthropogenic food would be, especially in high access areas. Hyperglycemia and adiposity could potentially compomise the immune system of animals and increase chances of disease transmission. This could threaten the livelihood of such species. It would be interesting to look at how species are adapting to anthropogenic food sources, and what metabolic pathways are formed with unique nutrients now in their diet.

Urban areas commonly develop in formerly biodiverse habitats, such as wetlands and valleys. This development tends to lead to an overall decrease in biodiversity, but some raptors have adapted their predation strategies to thrive in urban ecosystems. However, urban environments can also pose a higher threat to raptors through anthropogenic causes, such as window strikes and exposure to chemicals. This is especially true of anticoagulant rodenticides (ARs), which are primarily used on rodents in urban settings. The aim of this study was to determine the if exposure to ARs in barred owls stemmed from consumption of rodents with ARs in their system, or if secondary exposure from predating at bait stations caused the exposure. 

Owl pellets and prey remains were collected at nesting and roosting sites in and around Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The sites were found by local chapters of naturalist clubs, and playbacks were used at said sites to determine presence of barred owls. Bait stations of ARs were also scouted and their locations and distances from nests were marked. After collection, the pellets were dissected, and prey items were identified. 

The researchers found that the primary prey product of their studied owls was young adult rats. Barred owls with higher urban development surrounding their nests and roosts also had an relatively larger proportion of rats in their diets. Because rats are one of the primary targets of ARs, barred owls are subsequently at risk for posioning from secondary exposure to ARs. 

This study does state that barred owl in urban areas in British Columbia are at risk for secondary AR exposure, it never discusses if there is a risk for primary exposure. Primary exposure is mentioned in the abstract and background information, but not in the results, so readers do not know if this is also a reason for concentrations of ARs in barred owls. Furthermore, the researchers do not discuss how these results could apply to other urban areas. Doing so might be considered speculation, but I would like to know more about how we can use their results more broadly. I also would’ve liked to know more about black bait stations used to deploy ARs, so I could know specifically how they are affecting barred owl predation efforts. 

Hindmarch, S. and Elliot, J.E. When Owls Go To Town: The Diet of Urban Barred Owls. Journal of Raptor Research 49 (1): 66-74. https://doi.org/10.3356/jrr-14-00012.1

Overview: This study assessed the public’s perceptions of urban wildlife in Krakow, Poland and compared it with 2010 data. In a questionnaire, the researchers found that wildlife interactions with wild boars, red squirrels, brown hares, red foxes, and roe deer have increased since 2010. Since urbanization is only increasing, it makes sense that human-wildlife interactions are increasing as well.

Methods: The study area was in Krakow, Poland which is the second largest city in Poland. The Vistula River goes through the city which acts as a natural migration corridor for wildlife. The area consists of green patches, agricultural areas, watercourses, and urban land. The researchers sampled the population of Krakow, with 887 responses observed. The questionnaire consisted of sections that observed the population’s attitudes toward wildlife in the city, attitudes toward managing conflict situations with wildlife, socio-demographic information, encounters with wildlife and their reported behavior, and perceptions of conflictual wildlife and their associated problems. This questionnaire conducted in 2020 was similar to the 2010 questionnaire and statistical differences of the sociodemographic variables between the two years were calculated in ANOVA. Chi-square tests were also conducted to evaluate the differences in wildlife in Krakow and the respondents’ attitudes toward wildlife.

Results: The results showed that the socio-demographic factors between 2010 and 2020 were not significantly different. Results also showed that human-wildlife encounters have increased over the decade, with multiple species being significant.

Wildlife	2010 (n)	2020 (n)	Mean (±SD)	χ2	p-Value
Red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris)	93	791	442 (±493.56)	551.13	<0.001
Hedgehog (Erinaceus roumanicus)	601	701	651 (±70.71)	7.68	0.005
Red fox (Vulpes vulpes)	276	444	360 (±118.79)	39.20	<0.001
Roe deer (Capreolus capreolus)	271	409	340 (±97.58)	28.00	<0.001
Wild boar (Sus scrofa)	130	308	219 (±125.87)	72.34	<0.001
Stone marten (Martes foina)	256	394	325 (±97.58)	29.30	<0.001
Mute swan (Cygnus olor)	490	651	570.5 (±113.84)	22.72	<0.001
Bat (Chiroptera)	257	286	271.5 (±20.51)	1.54	0.213
Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos)	29	703	366 (±476.59)	620.60	<0.001
Brown hare (Lepus europaeus)	66	344	205 (±196.58)	188.50	<0.001

“χ²: p < 0.05; Bonferroni correction: p < 0.025. Italic: significant in Chi Square test, bold: significant after Bonferroni correction, bold and italic: significant in Chi Square test and Bonferroni.”

Additionally, the behavior of the species also changed from 2010 to 2020. More recently, the respondents found wildlife showing more behaviors (Figure B) other than running away from humans when being encountered like in 2010 (Figure A).

“Fig. 1. Canonical correlational analysis (CCA) ordination biplot of wildlife (in red) and their reaction while observing residents (blue arrows) as recorded in Krakow in 2010 (A) and 2020 (B). CCA plots to determine the relationship between wildlife and their observed behaviour.”

The researchers also found that the participants agreed that the most conflict causing species included the roe deer, stone marten, red fox, and wild boar. (Figure A = 2010, Figure B = 2020) The number and types of nuisance wildlife proved to be significantly different.

Lastly, the attitudes of the public were mostly neutral (36%), with around 25% of people being negative and 23% being positive. They found that there was a significant difference in the attitudes of the public between 2010 and 2020.

Critiques: Although this paper was pretty straight forward, I do wish that they mentioned the 2010 data of the public’s overall attitudes like they did with the 2020 data. Additionally, they mentioned in the limitations section that their selection of the participants was not completely random, and that there was only 23% of men representation. I do think picking a better selection of the participants would have been better for a more accurate representation of the Krakow population. Other than that, I did find it interesting to see how human-wildlife encounters have changed from 2010. I think this paper could help wildlife managers understand the public opinion in Krakow in order to inform possible management strategies.

References: Basak, S. M., Hossain, Md. S., O’Mahony, D. T., Okarma, H., Widera, E., & Wierzbowska, I. A. (n.d.). Public perceptions and attitudes toward urban wildlife encounters – a decade of change. ADS. https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2022ScTEn.83455603B/abstract 

This study was conducted to examine the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on conservation issues among adults with different political affiliations, as well as to determine the relative importance of these issues across the political spectrum. Additionally, it looked to understand how these issues coalesced during the 2020 US general election. It is crucial to determine the changes in the polarization on this broad category of issues because out of 14 major policy issues listed to voters in the study, conservation issues such as endangered species conservation and control of zoonotic disease ranked very low; Even lower than climate change.

The researchers used Qualtrics surveys and distributed them to 1,560 residents in August 2020. The study had quotas for how many respondents they used by state, age, and political affiliation. These political affiliations were assigned the following strata: Conservative Republican, Liberal/Moderate Republican, Independent/Other, Moderate/Conservative Democrat, and Liberal Democrat. Respondents were asked a series of 14 policy questions, with 12 being “standard” policies such as immigration and abortion, and 2 environmental questions. Their answers were on a 5-point scale, with answers ranging from “Not important at all” to “Very important to my vote”.

Researchers found that polarization was highest among the farthest fringes of political ideologies, with the most drastic differences between those who considered themselves furthest right and furthest left. The study found that Democrats experienced positive changes in their opinions (the pandemic made them more favorable to conservation), while Republicans had an adverse change in their views (the pandemic made them less favorable to conservation).

To improve this study, I would have liked to see the changes over a temporal scale represented. For example, the study could have sent Qualtrics surveys to respondents once in 2019 and compared the changes in the resurvey conducted in August 2020. This would have allowed researchers to directly compare individual changes as well as changes in self-reported political affiliations over the course of time. Overall, however, the results showed substantial management implications for state agency workers creating policy as well as lawmakers looking to represent their constituents better.

Casola WR, Beall JM, Nils Peterson M, Larson LR, Brent Jackson S, Stevenson KT. Political polarization of conservation issues in the era of COVID-19: An examination of partisan perspectives and priorities in the United States. J Nat Conserv. 2022 Jun;67:126176. doi: 10.1016/j.jnc.2022.126176. Epub 2022 Mar 26. PMID: 35370533; PMCID: PMC8957370.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8957370/#ab010

Background and purpose: As Canada goose populations have recovered from near extirpation to approximately 113,000 individuals in Indiana over the past 60 years, urban densities have created persistent human-wildlife conflicts and novel behavioral adaptations. Canada geese typically nest on the ground or slightly elevated natural sites like muskrat lodges near water bodies. However, the effects of urbanization on nesting site selection in this species have been understudied. This article documented observations of Canada geese nesting on rooftops 2.6–12.2 meters above ground level in central Indiana to understand how urban environments are influencing nesting behavior in this adaptable waterfowl species.

Methods: Researchers conducted routine nest surveys across three study areas in the Indianapolis Metropolitan Area from March to July 2021. Five rooftop nests were discovered and monitored on a weekly basis. Data collection included capturing band information from adult geese, counting eggs, recording nest materials, and tracking nest success through observations of egg membranes and goslings. Nest characteristics such as height above ground, distance to nearest water body, clutch size, and construction materials were documented. Hatching success was compared between elevated nests and ground-level nests in the same study areas.

Results: Rooftop-nesting Canada geese showed distinct differences from traditional ground nesters. Elevated nests had significantly smaller clutch sizes (average 4.00 eggs) compared to ground nests (5.01 eggs), but achieved 100% hatching success versus only 59.9% for ground-level nests. This suggests that while elevated nesting may reduce reproductive output, it significantly improves nest survival. Nest construction materials differed substantially, with rooftop nests using atypical materials like automotive belts, plastic sheets, and loose gravel with minimal traditional down and body feathers. All five rooftop nests successfully hatched, though goslings from two nests required human rescue due to barriers preventing natural departure. The researchers hypothesize that geese are selecting these elevated sites to avoid ground predators including mammals and human disturbance.

Criticisms: This study provides valuable documentation of an emerging urban adaptation, but several limitations affect the strength of conclusions. The sample size of only five nests is quite small for making broad generalizations about population-level behavioral changes. The study lacks systematic methodology for nest discovery, so it’s unclear whether these represent rare occurrences or a more common behavior that’s simply underreported. I would be interested to know if the researchers were actively searching for rooftop nests or if they just happened upon them during other surveys. Additionally, the research provides no data on long-term gosling survival rates after hatching, which is crucial for determining whether this apparent nesting advantage translates to reproductive success. While hatching success was high, the fact that goslings from two nests required rescue suggests potential survival challenges that could offset the benefits. 

The study also lacks environmental controls such as temperature measurements comparing rooftop versus ground conditions, which could help explain the higher hatching success. I am curious whether this behavior is spreading to other regions or if it represents a local adaptation specific to central Indiana’s urban landscape. Future research would benefit from larger sample sizes across multiple urban areas and longitudinal tracking of gosling survival rates to determine the true fitness consequences of this behavior.

Reference:

Shearer, D. J., Carter, T. C., & O’Neal, B. J. (2022). Canada geese (Branta canadensis) nesting on elevated structures in urban Indiana, USA. Ecology and Evolution, 12(3), e8735. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8735

Background and purpose: As urbanization grows, the overlap between cougar and human populations increases. Large carnivores are highly susceptible to habitat modification, because they tend to have low population density and wide ranging travel for their food requirements. The effects of urban development on the way cougars forage has rarely been studied and researched. This article investigated variation in cougar use of three prey types (synanthropes, ungulates, and rodents) along a wildland–urban gradient in western Washington to determine how urbanization affects the foraging ecology of this apex predator.

Methods: This study used trained dogs and cage traps to capture and radio-tag cougars throughout the 4450km^2 study site. They did this from 2004-2008 and again from 2013-2016. Once captured the animals were immobilized and given a physical examination and outfitted a GPS radio collar. Kill sites were located and prey identified. The surrounding urbanization of kill sites was measured as building density (structure per hectare). The diets of twenty individual cougars and their 568 kills were analyzed using statistical models.

Results: Firstly synanthropic prey use increased and odds of cougars preying on synanthropes (animals living in close association with humans) rose nearly fivefold with each additional building per hectare. However, only certain individual cougars specialized in synanthropes. Black-tailed deer and elk did remain the dominant prey throughout. Cougars remained to rely on ungulates as prey, which suggests that predator-ungulate systems can survive near human settlements. Additionally, as building density increased, kills of beaver and mountain beaver decreased, likely due to habitat loss and management practices reducing rodent presence. And it was also discovered that male cougars hunted rodents more often than females. Lastly, the study showed that some cougars deviated extensively in prey choice. For example, one male accounted for half the rodent predation.

Criticisms: Overall I thought this study was an insightful and interesting read. The research did have some limitations however. For one, building density was the only measure of urbanization, which oversimplifies the the complexity of human disturbance. Furthermore, the difference in collar technology between study periods may also have affected kill detection, making temporal comparisons less reliable. The lack of direct data on prey abundance makes it difficult to analyze whether dietary preferences of the cougar was a result of prey preference or prey abundance. Lastly, the limited sample size of twenty cougars makes it hard to apply this data across populations. Individual variation most likely strongly influenced results, especially if one male accounted for half the rodent kills. Future work could benefit from combining prey availability survey with kill site data to distinguish between preference and availability. Additionally standardized tracking technology, multiple measurements of urbanization, and a broadened sample size would yield more thorough results.

Reference:

Robins, C. W., Kertson, B. N., Faulkner, J. R., & Wirsing, A. J. (2019). Effects of urbanization on cougar foraging ecology along the wildland–urban gradient of western Washington. Ecosphere, 10(3), e02605.https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ecs2.2605

Background:

Black bears require a very high caloric intake leading up to the cold months when hibernate. They depend on a decent yield of soft and hard mast production in order to reach these nutritional needs, but sometimes hard or soft mast yields may drop too low to sustain Black bear populations. When this happens, bears need to forage for alternate food sources. Urbanization has been rapidly increasing which alters what these Black bear populations are exposed to. Being highly adaptive creatures, Black bears have come to use human garbage as an alternate food source. For urban bears, garbage can be easily accessed and can be high in calories.

This study was conducted in order to understand their foraging ecology in urban landscapes. The goal of the research is to find better solutions to mitigate human-wildlife conflict with Black bears.

Methods:

This study was conducted in the urban areas of Aspen, Colorado. During the months of May-August, researchers captured bears and fitted them with radio collars that were programed to report the bear’s locations every 30 minutes between May-September. From 2007-2010, researchers tracked 40 bears during May-September, which is their active season in Colorado. They backtracked to bear locations then inspected the area to see whether there is evidence of natural or anthropogenic foraging evidence. The area they would search at each back-tracked location had a 20 meter radius. They remotely downloaded data and backtracked to the most recent 24 hours of location data. They did not backtrack to the most recent location in order to avoid disturbing the bears, and they only used locations that were within 50 meters of a building.

Natural foraging evidence included animal carcasses, broken foliage, turned over rocks, ect. Anthropogenic foraging evidence included scattered garbage, visual observations of people present, broken limbs on landscape trees, broken windows, ect.

They used the backtracking data to summarize spatial and temporal patterns of the bears on natural and anthropogenic food sources.

Results:

Prehyperphagia refers to the months of May-July. Hyperphagia is when bears greatly increase their food intake prior to winter, during the months of August-September. Garbage was by far the most highly used anthropogenic food source. While garbage was consumed in high amounts every year, the poor years (years when less natural food sources were available) accounted for much higher levels of garbage consumption. The amount of garbage consumed during Hyperphagia was 5 greater during poor years.

The researchers randomly sampled 384 garbage containers and found that 76% of them were bear-resistant, but only 57% of the bear-resistant containers were properly secured.

Discussion:

The researchers determined that Black bears are most driven by cost vs reward when foraging. They put in the least amount of effort for the highest amount of caloric intake. They determined that the best next action is to decrease the reward bears receive when foraging in garbage, or increase the amount of effort put in. That would hypothetically steer bears towards foraging in wild land areas more often.

Critiques and takeaways:

Overall, I found the methods of this study to be fairly reliable in reducing potential bias and effectively answering the research question. The researchers were able to analyze 2 good years and 2 bad years. They were able to follow a decent sample size of bears, and collect data from a high number of feeding locations. They did, however, not dive deep into the dynamics within the wild land areas surrounding Apen, Colorado. This makes sense since the purpose of this study was to find answers specific to urban Black bear foraging behavior. This does raise a couple of questions that could aid in the understanding of urban Black bear foraging behavior though. Mostly, I think it’s worth researching Black bear population dynamics in the surrounding wild areas. Are these urban bears only urban because they are being pushed out of natural spaces by more dominant bears? Is there a lack of food sources available to sustain the whole Black bear population in these areas? How does hunting or a lack thereof play into the need for bears to travel into urban areas? To what degree are Black bears bothered by entering urban areas, and how bad do the alternatives need to be to push them there?

Those are a lot of questions, but I think it would be very interesting to conduct research that could answer some of these questions in wild land locations surrounding Aspen, Colorado in order to best relate results to one another.

Article:

URL: https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1890/ES15-00137.1

Citation: Lewis, D. L., S. Baruch-Mordo, K. R. Wilson, S. W. Breck, J. S. Mao, and J. Broderick. 2015. Foraging ecology of black bears in urban environments: guidance for human-bear conflict mitigation. Ecosphere 6(8):141. http://dx.doi.org/10.1890/ES15-00137.1

Background and Purpose: With an exponentially growing populations comes infrastructure, accompanied by roads. The direct and indirect effects of roads have been and will continue to be an important conservation concern for species that utilize a network of connected habitats. Most all taxa are affected by roads, however, herpetofauna, especially freshwater turtle species are disproportionately affected by additive adult mortality.  Being an already vulnerable species group with high juvenile mortality and high adult and subadult survivorship, anthropomorphic stressors, such as road mortality, are concerning. Roads not only act as a barrier of dispersal—effecting gene flow and changing animal behavior, but they are also the leading causes of death for some species. For turtle species, roads disproportionally effect nesting females who travel large distances across a landscape gradient—leading to a shift in sex ratios. Species like the Spotted Turtle who use a combination of wetlands and upland habitat across the landscape are more at jeopardy than wetland species that facilitate life processes in a single wetland. 

Study Species: Spotted Turtles are a small, freshwater wetland species that inhabit a variety of wetland types including vernal pools, bogs, marshes, roadside ditches, and small streams. With an expansive range from southern Canada to northern Florida, Spotted Turtles are found in many environments across the Atlantic Coast. They are declining across their range, however, due to a variety of environmental stressors including poaching, habitat fragmentation, wetland loss, road mortality, pollution, illegal trade, and many more. Spotted Turtles have a short active season, being in the water from March through June, and then aestivating and nesting during the summer months. They have large home ranges, especially nesting females—using the upland habitat bordering their wetlands as areas for nesting, short migration between wetlands, and aestivating. With an increase in urbanization, these upland habitats are being highly fragmented by roads—leading to high rates of road mortality. Although there is much said in the literature about the impacts of roads on turtles, there have been few examining the impact of road mortality on freshwater turtle populations. 

Methods and Results:  The study site was located in central Maryland with a paved, two-lane road intersecting it. The average number of vehicles driving on the road was 2017 to 2087 vehicles per days. North of the road were four ephemeral wetlands totaling 6.94 hectares in area. To the south were three permanent and one ephemeral wetland. Spotted Turtles were caught by hand and collapsible mesh minnow traps. All turtles were marked and measured. Both sides of the road (including the northern and southern wetland complexes) were treated as separate populations. PVA’s or population viability analyses were used to simulate Spotted Turtle population trajectories under baseline conditions with added road mortality.  

After running the models, both the northern and southern populations showed negative growth rates. Without road mortality, extinction risk is about 20-24% in 150 years, however, with road mortality, extinction risk is greater than 90%. Every slight increase in adult mortality increases the rate of extinction. While road mortality itself was only around a 2% loss annually, it is catastrophic for these small, isolated Spotted Turtle populations. 

Importance: There are large data gaps into what we know about Spotted Turtles, specifically in more robust populations where they are more abundant. This study is one of the first studies to attempt to quantify the direct effects that roads have on freshwater turtle viability. Although Spotted Turtles suffer from a variety of environmental stressors as mentioned before, road mortality can dramatically reduce population viability.  Many of the isolated areas Spotted Turtles inhabit are now being affected by urban sprawl and increasing infrastructure. These once remote upland area are now surrounded by neighborhoods, and many of these wetland complexes have been segmented by roads. There have been other studies looking at road mortality on freshwater turtle populations but depending on the species and the current status and structure of their populations, even large starting populations may have high extinction probabilities. 

Future Work: In North Carolina, road mortality appears to be especially high in areas like the inner/outer banks where Spotted Turtle populations are more robust. In my research, I have noticed that rural areas with multiple wetland complexes seem to result in high road mortality rates in Spotted Turtles. Although these areas are not city centers, and you may not even consider them urban, the infrastructure necessary to support growing populations is there. Studies like these should be replicated across Spotted Turtles’ range. Given that these turtles inhabit such a broad variety of ecosystems, the replication of this study in more southern populations is pivotal. Slight differences in behavior across populations may yield different results related to road mortality. In North Carolina, our populations are more active during the Spring months, and towards the end of May females will begin traveling to nest. For some wetland species, like the Spotted Salamander, that make great migrations once a year to reproduce, people have collaborated with local departments of transportation to aid in these mass movements during the winter months. Although it may not be as realistic for Spotted Turtles, there are ways to mitigate road mortality. Because Spotted Turtles are considered a species of concern in some places across the United States and are listed as endangered through the IUCN, you would have to be careful not to reveal the exact locations of these populations due to poaching. Progress is currently being made to increase the detection of Spotted Turtles across their range through a Competitive State Wildlife Grant funded by USFWS. By increasing the amount of data we have on Spotted Turtles in general, we can make informed conservation decisions regarding road mortality and other stressors threatening their status. 

Reference: Howell, H. J., & Seigel, R. A. (2019). The effects of road mortality on small, isolated turtle populations. Journal of Herpetology, 53(1), 39–46. https://doi.org/10.1670/18-022