As tiny, defenseless, 1-inch, quarter ounce hatchlings emerge, their only hope for survival is a mad dash from exposed sandy dunes to the cover of vegetation and the nursery salt marsh.
Terrapin Hatchling Runs for Its Life
As tiny, defenseless, 1-inch, quarter ounce hatchlings emerge, their only hope for survival is a mad dash from exposed sandy dunes to the cover of vegetation and the nursery salt marsh.
Terrapin Hatchling Runs for Its Life
Watch out below! Those perfectly circular holes on upland banks are not formed by hatchlings, but rather carved by the extremely aggressive Wolf Spider … not a critter who appreciates your apology after knocking on the wrong hole.
Aggressive Wolf Spider and Hole
Wellfleet tot Delilah Beebe gets to hold a diamondback hatchling.
http://www.patriotledger.com/news/state_news/x499365910/Big-year-for-baby-diamondbacks-on-Cape-Cod
As we released Little Dude into his natal habitat in Assonet Bay off the Taunton River in Freetown, we observed a bloom of sea nettles along the shoreline … and a deserted beach because of their presence.
Sea Nettles
“Litte Dude,” a threatened diamondback terrapin, emerged on August 23rd, 2007 with 16 more live siblings from a nest on the Assonet Bay Shores Beach in Freetown. He weighed 6.6 grams at emergence, measured a smidgeon over an inch long and sported a large, pinkish yolk sac. His siblings were released within a week, but this character was “the runt of the litter,” and would not likely have survived. Overwintering with the National Marine Life Center in Buzzards Bay, “Little Dude” grew to hockey puck size and was released today, August 9th, 2008 back into his natal habitat. Carl Brodeur & the Assonet Bay community, the NMLC team and Sue Wieber Nourse of Cape Cod Consultants released “Little Dude” at 2:30 pm this afternoon (August 9th, 2008).
Sue Wieber Nourse & Carl Brodeur Release “Little Dude”