Beach Selection in Nesting Pig-Nosed Turtles, Carettochelys insculpta

Abstract
We investigated beach selection of nesting Pig-Nosed Turtles (Carettochelys insculpta) along a 63-km stretch of river for two years. We found 221 nests on 82 nesting beaches and identified 171 potential nesting beaches based on previously published criteria. Beaches with nests had a greater substrate moisture content and corresponding higher cohesive sand line (hereafter CSL) than beaches without nests. Beaches with nests also had a higher CSL than beaches with only crawls. Beach temperatures increased with a seasonal increase in air temperatures and were influenced by aspect and total angle of solar exposure. Turtles did not select beaches that were hotter or cooler, on average, than what was available, indicating that turtles were not manipulating offspring sex through choice of nesting beach.