{"id":12990,"date":"2013-05-10T16:34:29","date_gmt":"2013-05-10T21:34:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=12990"},"modified":"2013-05-13T09:00:06","modified_gmt":"2013-05-13T14:00:06","slug":"sippican-harbor-terrapins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=12990","title":{"rendered":"Sippican Harbor Terrapins"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Sue Wieber Nourse Holds a Handful of Terrapins<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Friday brought a sunny interlude, a southerly breeze and mid-60 temperatures to Marion.\u00c2\u00a0 Sue Wieber Nourse and Don Lewis packed kayaks, paddles and nets, and headed to Head of Sippican Harbor to check activity in the mating aggregation.\u00c2\u00a0 Brisk winds kept turtle action to a minimum with only a few snorkeling heads and two basking turtles perched on rocks.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Four Diamondback Terrapins from Sippican Harbor<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Don spotted a pair of diamondback terrapins near the south bank.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0A large female snorkeled across the surface while\u00c2\u00a0a male bobbed behind her.\u00c2\u00a0 Don thrust paddle into the water and powerd his kayak on an intersecting course.\u00c2\u00a0 The female dove for the\u00c2\u00a0oozy bottom and the male followed\u00c2\u00a0intently, focused\u00c2\u00a0exclusively on the object of his affection.\u00c2\u00a0 Don\u00c2\u00a0swooshed his long pole net in front of the female, and in a single stroke scooped the adorable couple into the kayak.<\/p>\n

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Adorable Couple: 340 Female Followed by 304 Male<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

This adorable couple, Female #340 and Male #304, illustrates the gender dimorphism of the diamondback terrapin species.\u00c2\u00a0 Typical adult females are twice the linear size and more than four times the mass of adult males.\u00c2\u00a0 Both turtles had\u00c2\u00a0previously been captured and marked by the Turtle Journal team in Sippican Harbor.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Female Diamondback Terrapin #340 (Sippican Harbor)<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Female #340 is quite a feisty lady.\u00c2\u00a0 Sue captured and marked her last April 17th in\u00c2\u00a0Head of\u00c2\u00a0Harbor.\u00c2\u00a0 Since last year, she has grown .25 centimeters in length and width, and added 9 grams to her healthy weight.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Male Diamondback Terrapin #304 (Sippican Harbor)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Handsome Male #304 was first captured and marked by Don on July 30th, 2006.\u00c2\u00a0 In the last seven years, he has grown nearly 1.5 centimeters in linear dimensions and gained 80 grams weight.\u00c2\u00a0 As you can see above, he sports a\u00c2\u00a0stylish “mustache.”<\/span><\/p>\n

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Female Prepubescent Female #37 (Sippican Harbor)<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Juvenile Terrapin #37 is a new capture in Head of Sippican Habor.\u00c2\u00a0 She’s only four years old, measures 10.5 centimeters carapace length and weighs 173 grams.\u00c2\u00a0 She has\u00c2\u00a0passed safely through the long list of lethal challenges that confronts hatchlings and juvenile terrapins, and #37 has a good chance of reaching maturity and nesting in another three or four years.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Female Prepubescent Female #38 (Sippican Harbor)<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Sue netted Juvenile #38 in Little Neck Cove across from the Marion Town Landing.\u00c2\u00a0 This\u00c2\u00a0five-year-old prepubescent female measured 11.0 centimeters long and hit the scales at 210 grams.\u00c2\u00a0 Like #37, she has\u00c2\u00a0beat the longest odds\u00c2\u00a0against terrapin\u00c2\u00a0survival, and with any luck, she will reach maturity and begin nesting in another three years.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sue Wieber Nourse Holds a Handful of Terrapins Friday brought a sunny interlude, a southerly breeze and mid-60 temperatures to Marion.\u00c2\u00a0 Sue Wieber Nourse and Don Lewis packed kayaks, paddles and nets, and headed to Head of Sippican Harbor to check activity in the mating aggregation.\u00c2\u00a0 Brisk winds kept turtle action to a minimum with […]<\/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\/12990"}],"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=12990"}],"version-history":[{"count":43,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12990\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13048,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12990\/revisions\/13048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}