Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment: Wood Turtle (Vermont)

This species was identified as moderately vulnerable to climate change because of the following factors:

• Decrease in soil moisture during the summer
• Floods more likely to occur
• More frequent short-term droughts
• Requires specialized habitat (low-gradient streams)
• Unable to disperse long distances or move across the landscape as conditions change (restricted to stream corridor)
• Alteration of habitat from human activity
• Fragmentation of habitat from human activity
• Killed by cars and lawnmowers
• Captured and sold as pets
• Increase in predators
• Requires many years until able to reproduce (12 years)
• Impacted by leeches