It was a warm and humid day at Turtle Journal headquarters as my partner and I worked the nesting squad. The call came in from the Wellfleet beat. “Is this the Turtle Guy?” croaked the husky voice at the other end of the universe. I acknowledged the caller had the right number. “Well, we have a sticky situation here and we need your help.”
Do You Call This a Turtle Garden?
A dark and sultry stranger had slipped into Paul Pilcher’s garden off Chequessett Neck. “She’s 14 inches long and 8 inches wide,” claimed Lisa Benson who had been shown the glamorous invader that had taken possession of a corner of Paul’s garden and hadn’t budged in more than 24 hours. “We called the local authorities to find out what to do, yet once they found out it wasn’t a terrapin, they lost interest. She’s in trouble, Don. What can we do?”
Case of the Snapping Gardener
The Turtle Journal sleuths interrogated witnesses, analyzed clues and solved the case. “Give the lady a drink! Hydrate that gorgeous female snapper who’s been trapped in your garden, and move her tomorrow back to the nearest wetlands. Gently coax the gray lady into a large bucket with a shovel, but stay clear of her business end. She may appear lethargic, but she’ll still snap your fingers off.” Paul Pilcher and Dan Lawson under Lisa Benson’s guidance moved the turtle to the back of a pickup for the short ride home.
Happy Endings!
Without so much as a by-your-leave or thank-you, the sultry lady slipped through the grass and returned safe and sound to her wetlands home.
Fresh from his graduation yesterday from Williams College (see below), Turtle Journal’s Jared Nourse patrolled the barrier beach at Aucoot Cove in Marion this morning. He discovered diamondback terrapin nesting tracks, the first of the 2011 season, in the soft sand about 30 minutes before high tide in Buzzards Bay. He and Sue Wieber Nourse found three sets of tracks on the beach, which may have come from a single terrapin female in multiple runs to find her perfect nesting spot. Today’s find by Jared and Sue confirm observations in Wellfleet on the Outer Cape that female terrapins had begun to disperse from mating aggregations, presumably migrating to the vicinity of their nesting sites. All principal investigators have been alerted from Mount Hope Bay to the tip of Cape Cod that nesting season for diamondback terrapins in the Great White North has begun.
The greatest pleasure for a turtle researcher and for the Turtle Journal team is discovering springtime hatchlings. These miraculous creatures were born in the early fall and have spent the entire winter burrowed underground either in their natal nests or in make-do hibernacula scratched in uplands.
Inch-Long Diamondback Terrapin Hatchling
Despite long, harsh winters here in the Great White North, buried in mounds of snow topped with crackling ice, these delicate 4-gram, 1-inch long miracles survive. And when spring temperatures sneak into the mid-60s and sunshine bakes their upland hideouts, miniature turtles scramble to the surface to begin their arduous journey to the safety of their salt marsh nursery. Unlike their brothers and sisters in the fall who scramble down-slope to the marsh in zigzag posses, these springtime hatchlings make the journey solo. They wander in seemingly random patterns akin to the mathematician’s “drunkard walk,” and somehow a few dodge hungry predators and avoid dehydration to reach their destination. Sometimes it takes the intervention of an observant turtle watcher like Becky Okrent of Lieutenant Island to rescue a weakened hatchling nomad like this one.
Springtime Hatchling with Depleted Yolk Sac
When first born in the early fall, terrapin hatchlings are blessed with a large yolk sac of energy to keep them going through the hard winter months without the worry of active foraging. In the Great White North, babies must entered winter brumation almost as soon as they emerge from the nest as new-born hatchlings. The nourishment of the yolk sac sustains them through the fall search for a winter underground hideout and through the long seven months of brumation. In the image of this hatchling shown above, the protruding yolk sac has disappeared and the plastron has begun to heal over. By the summer, there will be no sign of where the yolk sac had been.
The World through Hatchling Eyes
Thanks to a little human kindness from Becky and Dan Okrent, this tiny hatchling was rescued from its aimless wanderings. It will now receive a little “head start” on its way to survival from the outstanding husbandry at the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History in Brewster. You can visit this tiny miracle at the museum this summer before it returns to the wild to continue restoration of Cape Cod’s diamondback terrapin population.
Turtle Journal sampled the population of northern diamondback terrapins (Malaclemys terrapin terrapin) in Marion’s Sippican Harbor off Buzzards Bay this weekend. Since Marion is headquarters for the Turtle Journal team, we approach this survey each year with deep melancholy. After nearly a decade of research in Marion, each season confirms our findings that this population in Sippican Harbor is severely distressed and may be on the unalterable path toward extirpation within this estuary of Buzzards Bay.
Don Lewis Examines Diamondback Terrapin
How can we assess the relative health of this population of elusive turtles and its trend without being able to physically count each and every specimen? Random sampling and the capture-mark-recapture technique. Each spring after emergence from winter brumation, during the mating aggregation and before nesting dispersal, terrapins are briefly captured by researchers. All scientific data collection occurs in the field to allow immediate return into the wild with minimal disturbance. Each specimen is measured, weighed and assessed for overall health. If not previously captured, a turtle receives a unique identification number, so that we can follow its progress throughout its life. (ASIDE: In our principal research site, we have observed individual specimens for the entire 32 year length of the study!) Pictures of its carapace (top shell), plastron (bottom shell), profile, and any anomalies are taken and included in the research database.
Capturing Terrapins from Kayak
We have discovered over the last three decades that the most humane way and safest technique for capturing wild terrapins in our local conditions is by hand-netting from a kayak. For many of these terrapin populations, it also proves the most effective and efficient means to obtain unbiased samplings of both genders and all ages from juvenile to ancient. Other techniques, such as trapping, trolling and seining, have proven ineffective within Cape Cod estuaries and carry risks to the animals. Hand capturing female terrapins on nesting runs is highly effective and safe, but misses entire segments of the population. (ASIDE: An equally safe and effective capture technique is wading with hand nets, but unfortunately this method can only be used in very limited circumstances and areas … none of which apply to our Buzzards Bay estuaries.)
Sue Wieber Nourse Releases Large Female Terrapins
When sampling a healthy population with signs of recovery such as Wellfleet Bay on the Outer Cape, where effective long-term conservation measures have turned around a formerly distressed system, the percentage of recaptures in comparison to newly captured turtles remains well under 50% … even after 30 years of sustained research. In fact, with the new conservation measures initiated in 2000, recapture rates dropped significantly beginning in 2007 indicating a rebounding population. Unfortunately in Sippican Harbor, the recapture rates has been in the high 90% since the initial sampling nearly a decade ago and remain tragically high. Of the six individuals captured this weekend, for instance, five were recaptures with long histories since the beginning of the Marion research effort.
Six Terrapins Released into Sippican Harbor
Why are Sippican terrapins in trouble? The simplest answer is that humans have transformed the natural estuarine habitat of Sippican Harbor in ways that have been extremely detrimental to terrapins and the entire marine ecosystem. Salt marshes have been fragmented and filled in; marsh grasses mowed down & plucked out to increase bathing spots. Lush suburban lawns and playing fields have been extended to the waterline. Coasts have been armored in sea walls, and dirt roads and pathways have been asphalted or graveled. The coastline is sand-starved with protective barrier beaches eroding away. For terrapins, they have lost upland nesting, nursery habitat in salt marshes, and foraging areas. Human construction has intruded right into their once secluded mating aggregation. In the end, the numbers tell the tale. Very few recruits enter the system, and as the small existing population of turtles yields over time to human disturbance and old age, Sippican Harbor will be purged of this bellwether species.
Turtle Journal brought its multimedia Turtles Gone Wild presentation to the Lakeville Historical Society on Wednesday night. To be certain that Don Lewis and Sue Wieber Nourse got all the facts right, a cadre of hard-shelled guests came along to keep the Turtle Journal team on the straight and narrow. A female and male pair of diamondback terrapins took the night off from romance at the Outer Cape mating aggregation. A female spotted turtle came along from a SouthCoast bog where she has been waiting for her turn to nest. And a two year old juvenile painted turtle thought it would be fun to show off his stuff for two legged critters.
Historical Society Members Meet Male Diamondback Terrapin
While the SRO (standing room only) crowd endured Don’s turtle stories, they truly lit up when Sue introduced them to our reptilian guests.
Dad Meets Momma Terp; Daughter Holds Handsome Dude
Of all the specimens on hand, none wowed the audience more than the diamondback terrapin pair. As is the way with terrapins, the female is significantly larger than her male companion. At the end of the evening, all went off into an exquisite May evening knowing a lot more about turtles and their history in Massachusetts, and smiling at the comical antics of these warm-hearted, cold-blooded creatures.
