Wild Turtle Medical Records from North Carolina Veterinary Hospital

North Carolina veterinary data contains 2,613 turtle case records examined between 1996 and 2012. It includes admission details, species, diagnosis, and final disposition for 12 native turtle species from 63 counties. The dataset provides epidemiological insight into human-wildlife interactions, with vehicular trauma as the most common presenting condition.

Use Cases

• Analyze the frequency of clinical diagnosis categories, such as vehicular trauma or infection, across different turtle species.
• Model the relationship between length of stay and final disposition (e.g., release to wild) using admission date and last case-entry date.
• Map the geographic distribution of turtle admissions by county to identify high-incidence areas for human-induced injuries.
• Investigate sex and reproductive status distributions among presented cases for specific species like Terrapene carolina or Chrysemys picta.

Strengths

• Contains 2,613 detailed medical case records spanning 17 years (1996-2012).
• Covers 12 native turtle species from a wide geographic scope of 63 North Carolina counties.
• Provides ultimate disposition data for 2,318 turtles, including 1,227 confirmed releases to the wild.

Limitations

• Data is temporally stale, with the summarized case range ending in 2012 and no updates indicated since.
• Sex distribution is only known for a subset of cases, as indicated by 'those of known sex'.
• The dataset represents a single veterinary hospital's admissions, which may not reflect statewide or species-wide health trends.

Provenance

Source

North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine Turtle Rescue Team.

Collection Method

Compiled from medical records of wild turtles treated and released by the rescue team.

Time Range

1996 to 2012.

Freshness

null

Geography

63 counties in North Carolina, USA.