Turtle Journal

Eastern Box Turtle Couple (Female Rear, Male Front)

Rains drenched the SouthCoast of Massachusetts. Wonderful, springtime rains that soak woodlands and refresh wetlands. Days like these mark the moment when Eastern box turtles emerge from burrows and replenish loss hydration incurred during nearly seven months of slumber.  And this last winter and spring have witnessed considerable dryness and drought in Eastern Massachusetts.

Sue Wieber Nourse Re-Discovers Rescued New Bedford Turtle

With that in mind, the Turtle Journal team visited Great Neck Sanctuary in Wareham this morning.  Sue Wieber Nourse quickly found a gorgeous female box turtle crossing the path and luxuriating in a muddy puddle bath.  As luck would have it, we discovered this turtle was the one that had been rescued from the busy streets of New Bedford last summer.  We had placed her here in the Great Neck Sanctuary on October 3rd, hoping she would acclimate to the new habitat, survive the winter, and adopt Great Neck as her new home.  (See Homeless “Street Turtle” Finds a Sanctuary.)

Male Eastern Box Turtle

Clearly, she has been doing quite fine.  We weighed her at 675 grams when we released her in the fall.  Today she tipped the scales at 681 grams after seven months of brumation.  And just a few feet down the path, we found this handsome dude hanging around … obviously waiting for our attractive lady.  So, she has already found a beau in her new neighborhood.

Adorable Box Turtle Couple @ Great Neck Sanctuary

The male box turtle felt light compared to the female.  He weighed just 493 grams even though he measured only a little more than a 1/2 centimeter shorter in shell length.  Like most males, he sports bright red, “boodshot” eyes, while our attractive lady has the beautiful, tradional female brown eyes.

Sue Wieber Nourse with Adorable Box Turtle Couple

The adorable couple was brought back to Turtle Journal headquarters to be examined, weighed, measured and photographed.  Because this female is such an important specimen, we wanted to be sure that we identified her correctly and we compared her photographic and data records. 

Eastern Box Turtle Couple

We were delighted to confirm our field observations.  Eastern Box #2 is indeed the mature female turtle that was rescued from the busy streets of urban New Bedford, and brought to Great Neck Sanctuary at the onset of brumation time in October to try to reset her sense of territoriality when she emerged this spring.  All signs point to at least initial success.

Adorable Couple Released Back in Great Neck Sanctuary

After processing at headquarters, the two Eastern box turtles were immediately returned to the spot where they were discovered within the Great Neck Sanctuary.  Turtle Journal, in partnership with Mass Audubon’s Allens Pond Wildlife Sanctuary, will continue to monitor this sanctuary for box turtle activity to determine the population density in this area of Wareham and to check on Eastern Box Turtle #2, our rescued female.

Juvenile Snapping Turtle Surveys Wareham Golf Course

Yes; when you research turtles from ocean depths to mountain tops, you get used to surprises.  Still, some surprises are bigger than others.  On Thursday morning, in light clouds and showers, Turtle Journal drove by the Little Harbor Golf Course in Wareham.

Juvenile Snapper Strolls Down Fairway

We spotted a juvenile snapping turtle stomping down the fairway in focused determination as though searching for his drive off the tee.  As luck would have it, rain had chased away two- legged golfers; so, there was no argument about who might have right of way.  In any case, we suspect no one would dispute this lad’s intention to “play through.”

Two Snappers Yell “Fore!”

Don Lewis interrupted the young golfer for a bief interview about his playing skills.  Don especially wanted hints on the snapper’s technique on the greens.  They both decided to have a little fun by yelling “fore” on a deserted golf course.

Juvenile Snapper Close Up

Notice how Don shows total respect for this juvenile snapper’s powerful neck and jaws.  He holds the turtle, which weighs about five pounds, from the very back of his carapace.  You might also notice the powerful legs and thick, sharp claws.  Even from the protective grasp at the rear of the snapper, there’s no relief from those powerful limbs.  As a researcher, you simply accept the pain … because it feels so good when it stops.

Juvenile Snapper Takes Up Golf at Little Harbor Course 

After our discussion about the finer points of reptile golf and the travails of living a turtle’s life on a country club, the snapper chose to continue his round … before showers ended and humans once again laid claim to the fairway.

“Let’s Talk Handicap … Yours, Not Mine”

One interesting point of dispute arose when Don asked the snapper about his handicap.  For some reason this cold-blooded duffer deemed the topic a bit too sensitive and threatened to give Don the kind of handicap that would transcend golf.  Don tucked away this final lesson as another in a long list of reasons why he has never taken up the game.

Snapper Plays Through at Little Harbor Golf Course

Speaking of warnings and a word to the wise, considering the direction of the snapper’s travel, we’d like to caution golfers, caddies and grounds keepers who may think that salvaging golf balls from water hazards might be a smart business proposition.  Lurking underneath the water may be a hazard that looks an awful lot like this juvie … only perhaps ten times larger.  How much is the bounty on a salvaged golf ball?

Don Lewis, The Turtle Guy — Click on Image for Full Story

By Frank Mulligan, Wicked Local Wareham (Wareham Courier)

FMulligan@wickedlocal.com

Read more: Talking turtles at the Wareham Free Library – Wareham, MA – Wicked Local Wareham http://www.wickedlocal.com/wareham/features/x255392140/Talking-turtles-at-the-Wareham-Free-Library#ixzz1ur9EvC1P

Sue Wieber Nourse:  Female (Left) and Male (Right) 

On Monday, May 7th, Sue Wieber Nourse took advantage of a light southwest breeze, bright sunshine and temperature in the low sixties to paddle Sippican Harbor in search of Northern Diamondback Terrapins.  A week of chilled temperatures and overcast skies had driven SouthCoast terrapins back into brumation. She netted two adult terrapins.  Sue snagged a 6-year-old adult male that had never been caught before.  Sue also netted a 14-year-old female terrapin that we had first observed on July 2nd, 2005 as a prepubescent, 7-year-old. 

Sue Wieber Nourse Captures Terrapin Pair from Kayak

The Sippican Harbor population of terrapins has been studied by the Turtle Journal team since spring 2003 when its existence was first confirmed.  In the ten research seasons since then, we have estimated an at risk population of under 100 adult terrapins resides in the Sippican estuary.  With those dramatically depressed numbers, few juvenile “recruits” are seen by researchers.  So, there is little opportunity to follow a prepubescent female through her lifecycle to maturity in order to gain insight into a growth model for Buzzards Bay terrapins.  Based on the significantly larger size of mature females in Buzzards Bay compared to those observed in Cape Cod Bay, Wellfleet Bay and Pleasant Bay terrapin populations, we had assumed that Sippican turtles would demonstrate a steeper growth curve.  Yet, the challenge in such a small and aging population was acquiring confirmatory data.

Male #1039 (Left) and Key Female Recapture #283 (Right)

That’s what made Sue’s capture of Terrapin #283 so special.  This turtle was first captured as a prepubescent female in 2005 when she was aged at 7 years old.  She measured 14.71 centimeters (cm) carapace length and 12.81 cm plastron length; she weighed 487 grams back then.  On Monday, now at 14 years of age, she had grown to 20.45 cm carapace length and 18.35 cm plastron length; she weighed 1400 grams.  These latter numbers would be representative of nearly a 40 year old terrapin in the Cape Cod Bay population.

 

Cape Cod Bay Growth Chart (Post-2002 Research Season)

As indicated in this chart from our comprehensive 2003 report on Northern Diamondback Terrapins in Cape Cod Bay, we had measurements on 100 individual prepubescent females positively aged at 7.  The average carapace length, plastron length and weight were 13.76 cm, 12.19 cm and 476.48 grams.  At 7 years old, Sippican Terrapin #283 was only a few % points larger than the Cape Cod average and well within expected deviation for a prepubescent female of that age.

For the 2003 report, we had 26 mature Cape Cod Bay females positively aged at 14.  The average carapace length, plastron length and weight were 18.17 cm, 16.30 cm and 1033.24 grams.  At 14 years old, Sippican Terrapin #283 is already more than 12.5% larger and weighs 35% more than the average Cape Cod 14-year-old female.  In fact, very few Cape Cod terrapins ever attain a 20 cm length; if they did, it would be at about 40 years of age.

Key Terrapin #283 (14-Year-Old Female)

While we had assessed for some time that mature female terrapins in Buzzards Bay were 10% to 15% larger than their Cape Cod Bay counterparts, #283 marks one of the first Sippican females to provide confirmation of the steeper female growth curve required to attain this significantly larger size.

 Sue Wieber Nourse Paddles Sippican Harbor

With a tiny, at risk population that produces few juvenile recruits, it’s not an easy chore to acquire key specimens to fill in the data gaps to confirm or refute hypotheses.  Thanks to Sue’s capture of Terrapin #283, some of those data holes can begin to be closed.  Turtle Journal will continue to search for such important finds during the 2012 season, while we try to reverse the downward trend of the Sippican Harbor population in order to stem extirpation of Northern Diamondback Terrapins from this Buzzards Bay estuary.