{"id":4495,"date":"2000-11-20T12:04:33","date_gmt":"2000-11-20T17:04:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=4495"},"modified":"2010-03-02T12:11:17","modified_gmt":"2010-03-02T17:11:17","slug":"fox-island-marsh-surrenders-another-dead-terrapin-20-november-2000","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=4495","title":{"rendered":"Fox Island Marsh Surrenders Another Dead Terrapin — 20 November 2000"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"11-20-1<\/a><\/p>\n

Fox Island Wildlife Management Area<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Acres of tall marsh grass still mask the extent of this year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s terrapin die-off in the Fox Island Wildlife Management Area.\u00c2\u00a0 The improbability of finding dead turtles trapped in these thickets will remain astronomically high until winter storms and ice floes scythe the field.<\/p>\n

\"11-20-2<\/a><\/p>\n

Young Dead Female Terrapin Found in High Grass<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Yet we were able this morning to spot the plastron of a young female, barely visible through dying grass stalks at the east edge of Field Point.<\/p>\n

\"11-20-3<\/a><\/p>\n

Don Lewis Bags Recovered Terrapin Carcass<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Encouraged by this find, we waded deeper into the marsh only to back off when Rags plopped into a quick-mud creek channel disguised by the dense vegetation.\u00c2\u00a0 Better to retreat with honor and limbs intact to return another day.<\/p>\n

\"11-20-4<\/a><\/p>\n

Don Lewis Documents Impact of Terrapin Deaths<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The remains proved to be a prepubescent 8-year-old female \u00e2\u20ac\u201d a significant loss to the Wellfleet population.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe a year short of sexual maturity, she had escaped the many and obvious threats to survival since her birth in the early 90s.\u00c2\u00a0 She had avoided nest predation, which reaches more than 90 percent.\u00c2\u00a0 She evaded predators stalking hatchlings as they emerge and race for the tidal marsh.\u00c2\u00a0 She survived infancy when her tiny size represented a tasty morsel to a host of marsh critters.\u00c2\u00a0 She lived through eight harsh winters, burrowed under black ooze for seven months of the year.\u00c2\u00a0 At her current size and age, she had outgrown nearly every predator and threat.\u00c2\u00a0 And now she was about to enter the most important and productive phase for the health of the terrapin population.\u00c2\u00a0 Because turtles are such long-lived and slow-growing animals, mature females are the critical lynchpin in terrapin survival.\u00c2\u00a0 Researchers have estimated that it takes a female turtle nearly 10 years of full sexual production to lay enough eggs to simply replace herself.\u00c2\u00a0 We can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t afford to lose many turtles such as this one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fox Island Wildlife Management Area Acres of tall marsh grass still mask the extent of this year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s terrapin die-off in the Fox Island Wildlife Management Area.\u00c2\u00a0 The improbability of finding dead turtles trapped in these thickets will remain astronomically high until winter storms and ice floes scythe the field. Young Dead Female Terrapin Found in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","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\/4495"}],"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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4495"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4495\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4505,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4495\/revisions\/4505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}