Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Spotted salamander
this turtle moves easily among the forests and gardens of suburban Aiken,
South Carolina, where fewer and more slowly traveled roads prove to be
minor hazards. Still, it is not easy being a turtle in subirdia; some nests are
destroyed in yards, and turtles of all ages are inadvertently mowed over or
burned in debris piles where they seek refuge. Populations, however, are
generally healthy.
Golf courses, with their ponds, out-of-play areas, and reduced trai c, like
subdivisions that provide safe travel corridors between breeding and nonbreed-
ing habitats, of er another possibility for amphibians and reptiles to survive in
subirdia. In highly urbanized Detroit, Michigan, golf courses support a high
diversity of toads, frogs, snakes, and turtles. Suburban courses in Queensland,
Australia, on average support seventeen species of reptiles and i ve of amphibi-
ans, including several of conservation concern. Courses in the Sonoran Desert
around Tucson, Arizona, also are used by nearly all the species of lizard, snake,
