{"id":11651,"date":"2012-08-22T11:33:12","date_gmt":"2012-08-22T16:33:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=11651"},"modified":"2012-08-23T12:02:16","modified_gmt":"2012-08-23T17:02:16","slug":"hatchling-rescue-on-marion-barrier-beach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=11651","title":{"rendered":"Hatchling Rescue on Marion Barrier Beach"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Rescued Premature Hatchling from Marion Barrier Beach<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Life is not fair, especially for vulnerable diamondback terrapin hatchlings like the little baby pictured above.\u00c2\u00a0 Once eggs have incubated long en0ugh, two to three months depending on temperature, hatchlings begin to “pip,” break the eggshell with their egg tooth.\u00c2\u00a0 Even though the egg has been pierced, babies stay inside until they have absorbed enough of their huge yolk sacs for them to be able to crawl freely.\u00c2\u00a0 Those babies furthest along in development emerge first, leaving less mature hatchlings to fend for themselves.\u00c2\u00a0 Unfortunately, once the first hatchling tunnels to the surface, it leaves an emergence hole from which the tempting odor of organic material rings through the\u00c2\u00a0beach like a dinner bell for predators.<\/p>\n

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Hatchling Tracks on Marion Barrier Beach<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

On Wednesday morning, Sue Wieber Nourse and Rufus the Turtle Dog found hatchling tracks on a Marion barrier beach.\u00c2\u00a0 Sue analyzed the tracks and found the emergence hole.\u00c2\u00a0 Six\u00c2\u00a0hatchlings had tunneled to safety, leaving behind three “pipped” and helpless babies with huge yolk sacs that\u00c2\u00a0thwarted emergence.\u00c2\u00a0 They would have been consumed by predators as soon as darkness fell.\u00c2\u00a0 Sue also found three eggs, two viable and one questionable.<\/p>\n

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Sue Wieber Nourse with Rescued Hatchling<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Sue harvested the eggs and the premature babies.\u00c2\u00a0 They were brought to Turtle Journal’s rescue nursery where the eggs will continue to incubate and the babies will mature in safety.\u00c2\u00a0 With a little luck and a lot of TLC, all will be returned to the wild in a few weeks to boost the threatened population of diamondback terrapins in Buzzards Bay.<\/p>\n

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Being Born:\u00c2\u00a0 Not All It’s “Cracked” Up to Be<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

So, yes; being born is not all it’s cracked up to be.\u00c2\u00a0 For a baby turtle, challenges to survival are legion.\u00c2\u00a0 Luckily for these babies, Sue Wieber Nourse, Rufus the Turtle Dog and the whole Turtle Journal team of researchers and\u00c2\u00a0rescuers are on watch to give them that little extra\u00c2\u00a0TLC that will make the difference between survival and extirpation for diamondback terrapins in Buzzards Bay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rescued Premature Hatchling from Marion Barrier Beach Life is not fair, especially for vulnerable diamondback terrapin hatchlings like the little baby pictured above.\u00c2\u00a0 Once eggs have incubated long en0ugh, two to three months depending on temperature, hatchlings begin to “pip,” break the eggshell with their egg tooth.\u00c2\u00a0 Even though the egg has been pierced, babies […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11651"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11651"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11651\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11669,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11651\/revisions\/11669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}