Posts Tagged ‘observation’

The New Naturalists: Next Generation of Herpetologists

Wednesday, September 24th, 2008

Young Herpetologist Meets Her First Terrapin Hatchling

The most sacred duty of any naturalist, especially one with thinning silver locks, involves sharing the experience of Nature and recruiting successors among the next generation to continue the critical mission of observation, documentation and conservation.  While my colleagues and I employ undergraduate and graduate interns each season to “learn the trade” of field science, our special joy comes from opportunites to engage with the youngest scientists, those for whom an adventure in the wild becomes a transformational experience that may change the course of their lives and the future of our world. 

Don Lewis and Young Herpetologists with Terrapin Hatchlings

Partnering with such exceptional conservation advocates as the Massachusetts Audubon Society, the National Marine Life Center, the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History, and Massachusetts Marine Educators (among too many others to mention in a short post), we have had the privilege to introduce children from nine months to nine decades to Nature through the unparalleled teaching model of turtles.  Seemingly helpless hatchlings melt the hardest hearts.  I’ve watched jaded curmudgeons with expressions so sour they could change sunshine into hail; I watched their eyes mist as they witnessed a tiny hatchling poke its head through its eggshell at the instant of birth.  For children who come to the field with fewer preconceptions of the natural world, these interactions are pure joy.

Discovering a Hatchling as It Emerges from the Egg

Because turtles, and especially hatchlings, appear so accessible to children, they create an immediate and tangible link with Nature.  In decades of wildlife research and education, we have never encountered a person WITHOUT a turtle story to tell.  Often an octogenarian will smile the smile of a todler as her eyes beam and she tells the tale of how her dad introduced her to a baby turtle he had found in the pond behind their home.

Baby Meets Baby

We can never forget the young girl who eagerly and tenderly held a four-year-old snapping turtle at the Earth Day celebration at Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary in 2003.  We wonder how she showed no fear of what this then timid turtle would become as it grew into a mighty and fearsome snapper.  She simply felt the joy of touching Nature in such a personal way.

Four-Year-Old Meets Four-Year-Old Snapping Turtle

During field season, we use every opportunity to involve children in our research, especially when releasing critters back into the wild.  On the beaches of the Outer Cape, the setting is perfect for youngsters to meet turtles in a completely natural venue and to learn about them in ways that books simply can never convey.

Turtles Create Transformational Moments

A message from today’s post?  Take every opportunity to introduce children to Nature and show them critters in their natural habitat.  The rewards of the moment will be enormous as you see pure, honest joy burst across their faces.  But this singular experience will pay dividends for a lifetime as memories form touchstones that will shape the course of their lives and the future of our world.  Bring your family into Nature and see what futures you, too, can create.

Hatchlings Released into Nursery Salt Marsh off Turtle Point

Tracking Terrapin Hatchlings

Friday, September 5th, 2008

Where do hatchlings go once they flee the nest? Using various methods of inference and observation, we have determined that some hatchlings race to the wrack line for safety, others scramble further into the salt marsh grasses and still others opt to remain upland for at least the first winter of their “hidden” years.

Terrapin Hatchling Track Heads Down Turtle Pass Dune

Let’s follow some clues, some tracks and some hatchlings to test these hypotheses.  The high dune of Turtle Pass seems the place to start as we discover a hatchling track descending from an emergence nest atop the dune and heading seaward.

Tracks Assume Colorful Tints as Sun Dances Behind Clouds

Down we go along the shifting slope that morphs in shape and color as shadows dance through the contours of the dune.

Close-Up with Tail Mark Bisecting Track

Let’s experience the descent as though we were a newborn hatchling on its first ski run down the slopes.

Follow Tracks to Hatchling Buried in Salt Marsh Wrack

So, our first experiment leads to the discovery of a hatchling burrowed into the landward edge of the wrack line, buried under last winter’s deposit of salt hay.

But our day isn’t over as we encounter another set of hatchlings scaling the bearberry covered banks off 5th Avenue and passing through an exquisite clump of sea lavender en route to safety.

Terrapin Hatchling Scrambles to Reach Salt Marsh

These little critters eschew the wrack line, which to them seems like a clear cut jungle of logs, and head directly into the thick matting of Spartina patens in the salt marsh system separating east and west sections of Lieutenant Island.