Population Structure and Biomass 
of Sternotherus odoratus (Testudines: Kinosternidae) 
in a Northern Alabama Lake 
C. Kenneth Dodd, Jr. 
National Ecology Research Center, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 
412 N.E. 16th Avenue, Room 250, 
Gainesville, Florida 32601 
ABSTRACT . — A population of the stinkpot, Sternotherus odoratus, 
was sampled periodically during the summer of 1985 in a small lake in 
northern Alabama. The population structure was similar to that 
reported in other studies, although the sizes of turtles were intermediate 
between populations located farther to the north and to the south. The 
sex ratio was skewed toward females, but a relatively small sample size 
hinders interpretation of the significance of this result. A population 
density estimate of 148.5 turtles per hectare indicated a biomass of 10.6 
kg/ ha. Mortality from drowning in traps was not influenced by the 
sex, body mass, or size of the affected adult. 
The stinkpot or common musk turtle, Sternotherus odoratus, is a 
geographically widespread inhabitant of the eastern United States. This 
omnivorous species frequents sluggish and still waters, particularly lakes 
and ponds (Carr 1952, Ernst and Barbour 1972, Mount 1975). In 
Alabama, stinkpots occur statewide (Mount 1975), and they inhabit 
slow-moving or lentic waters, including large rivers such as the 
Tennessee River. 
In spite of the species’ ubiquitous nature, there have been relatively 
few field studies of stinkpot ecology, and these for the most part have concentrated 
on reproductive ecology (Tinkle 1961; Gibbons 1970a; Iverson 1977; 
McPherson and Marion 1981, 1983; Gross 1982; Mitchell 1985a, 1985b). 
Aspects of its life history and abundance have been reported for pond 
populations in the north (Risley 1933, Cagle 1942, Wade and Gifford 
1965, Ernst 1986), a large lake population in central Florida (Bancroft 
et al. 1983), and a stream population in Oklahoma (Mahmoud 1969). 
Although reproductive and intrapopulational morphological variation is 
substantial, there is relatively little interpopulational morphological 
variation (Reynolds and Seidel 1983). Little is known about geographic 
variation in population density, or about population densities in different 
habitat types within close proximity to one another. 
During the course of a study of the ecology of the flattened musk 
turtle, Sternotherus depressus, in the Warrior Basin of north-central 
Alabama (Dodd et al. 1988). I had the opportunity to sample 
Brimleyana No. 15:47-56, January 1989 
47 
