{"id":13613,"date":"2013-08-28T21:16:59","date_gmt":"2013-08-29T02:16:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=13613"},"modified":"2013-08-28T21:16:59","modified_gmt":"2013-08-29T02:16:59","slug":"two-rare-terrapin-nests-hatch-old-schaefer-oceanology-lab","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=13613","title":{"rendered":"Two Rare Terrapin Nests Hatch @ Old Schaefer Oceanology Lab"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Two Terrapin\u00c2\u00a0Hatchlings and Egg from Schaefer Nest<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Two rare diamondback terrapin nests hatched at\u00c2\u00a0Tabor Academy’s\u00c2\u00a0Old Schaefer Oceanology Lab this morning, August 28th.\u00c2\u00a0 These two nests yielded 20 emerged hatchlings and two viable eggs; an excellent harvest to potentially reverse the decline of the terrapin population in Sippican Harbor.\u00c2\u00a0 On June 9th, the Turtle Journal team found the first terrapin female of the season on a nesting run at the Schaefer Lab (See Threatened Terrapin Nesting @ Tabor Academy’s Schaefer Lab<\/a>.)<\/span><\/p>\n

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First Terrapin Emergence Hole at Old Schaefer Lab<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Turtle Journal’s Sue Wieber Nourse confirmed the existence of terrapins in Sippican Harbor in the late 1990s when she discovered a hatchling at the Old Schaefer Oceanology Lab and observed adults snorkeling in the estuary.\u00c2\u00a0 As the inaugural holder of Tabor’s Jaeger Chair for Marine Studies,\u00c2\u00a0Wieber Nourse\u00c2\u00a0advanced original terrapin research and conservation in Buzzards Bay through a prestigious grant from the National Fish & Wildlife Fund.\u00c2\u00a0 She and her students identified the shore immediately surrounding the Schaefer Lab as a key nesting site for this threatened species and formally reported this scientific finding to the Massachusetts Natural Heritage & Endangered Species Program.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Two Diamondback Terrapin Hatchlings @ Schaefer Lab<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

This morning Wieber Nourse found the first emergence hole midway between the lab and the beach.\u00c2\u00a0 She excavated to discover two perfect hatchlings remaining in the nest, one viable egg, egg shards from six emerged hatchlings, and three undeveloped eggs.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Carapace & Plastron of Two Schaefer Lab Terrapin Hatchlings<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

The beautiful hatchlings were in perfect physical condition.\u00c2\u00a0 Their yolk sacs were mostly absorbed.\u00c2\u00a0 Both babies sported carapace anomalies with extra scutes; nothing that will affect their survival, but still worth noting as a potential identification mark when we see these babies again as sub-adults in another four or five years.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Second Terrapin Emergence Hole at Old Schaefer Lab<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Wieber Nourse found a second emergence hole a little closer to the beach.\u00c2\u00a0 In this nest, Sue discovered another viable egg and the egg shards from 12 hatchlings that had already emerged.\u00c2\u00a0 This morning’s discoveries, plus an additional Schaefer Lab nest being protected by\u00c2\u00a0the Turtle Journal team, confirm the critical importance of this nesting site for survival of the Sippican population of threatened diamondback terrapins.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two Terrapin\u00c2\u00a0Hatchlings and Egg from Schaefer Nest Two rare diamondback terrapin nests hatched at\u00c2\u00a0Tabor Academy’s\u00c2\u00a0Old Schaefer Oceanology Lab this morning, August 28th.\u00c2\u00a0 These two nests yielded 20 emerged hatchlings and two viable eggs; an excellent harvest to potentially reverse the decline of the terrapin population in Sippican Harbor.\u00c2\u00a0 On June 9th, the Turtle Journal team […]<\/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\/13613"}],"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=13613"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13613\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13641,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13613\/revisions\/13641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}