{"id":5125,"date":"2001-05-05T15:41:38","date_gmt":"2001-05-05T20:41:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=5125"},"modified":"2010-03-09T16:00:30","modified_gmt":"2010-03-09T21:00:30","slug":"a-tough-lonely-life-%e2%80%94-5-may-2001","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=5125","title":{"rendered":"A Tough Lonely Life \u00e2\u20ac\u201d 5 May 2001"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"05-05-1<\/a><\/p>\n

Middle of Blackfish Creek Rip; Note Turtle Tracks from Sandbar<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes, the terrapin researcher lives a tough, lonely life … enduring elemental extremes of 72 degrees air temperature and 72 degrees water temperature … no office to call one\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s own … a small dinghy beached on a low tide sandbar the only place to hang one\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s net.\u00c2\u00a0 A sad, arduous task, but someone must make the sacrifice for the sake of America\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s endangered terrapins.\u00c2\u00a0 [ASIDE:\u00c2\u00a0 The application queue stretches to somewhere west of Laramie, Wyoming.]<\/p>\n

\"05-05-2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Large Female Terrapin Swimming through the Shallow Rip<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Several days of summer heat boiled Blackfish Creek into algae stew.\u00c2\u00a0 So murky had the water become that toes disappeared from your feet in less than a half foot of water.\u00c2\u00a0 The rip broiled in calico crabs and mating horseshoe crabs and the season\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s first school of striped bass.\u00c2\u00a0 Terrapins streamed through the channel, poked skyward for a gulp of air, and descended into the invisible muck to dash over the rip to safety.<\/p>\n

But today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s tide, two days short of a full moon, dropped to minus 0.3 foot.\u00c2\u00a0 And as water drained from the rip, the last set of turtles had nowhere left to hide.\u00c2\u00a0 Six terrapins were netted: four females and two males.\u00c2\u00a0 All the females were recaptures; the males were seen for the first time.<\/p>\n

\"05-05-3\"<\/a><\/p>\n

“Field Office” Beached on Sandbar; Females Center, Males Front<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Back in my rustic office and combo holding pen, I reviewed their histories.\u00c2\u00a0 Terrapin 322 we saw just three days ago, and in that short time, she had already gained 18 grams.\u00c2\u00a0 Number 189, an ancient female of nearly 21 cm length and close to 1.5 kg weight, has been under observation since she was found nesting in 1990.\u00c2\u00a0 Her right front limb sports a well-healed scar for a missing foot, but she manages quite nicely, thank you.\u00c2\u00a0 Near the tail end of the tide, two pairs of terrapins came racing through the rip.\u00c2\u00a0 In both cases, the female paddled in the lead and a male chased right after her, within an inch or two, zigzagging in the shallows.\u00c2\u00a0 So engaged in this ballet were these performers, that the pairs were netted together.<\/p>\n

\"05-05-4<\/a><\/p>\n

Captured Terrapins Scramble for Freedom after Processing<\/em><\/strong>\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

Those two females, #869 and #908, had last been seen on 4 June 2000, together on the same tide that morning.\u00c2\u00a0 Back then, Terrapin 869 had a noticeable abrasion\u00c2\u00a0on her neck.\u00c2\u00a0 But today, that injury had completely healed and had disappeared.<\/p>\n

The post-processing release offered even more comic relief than the normal chaotic dash for the creek.\u00c2\u00a0 One of the males (#1058) had obviously gotten attached to his temporary home and my field office.\u00c2\u00a0 While the other turtles beat it for parts unknown, he crawled back to the boat and burrowed under the bow.\u00c2\u00a0 It proved a deuce of a time trying to unbeach the dinghy without disturbing this squatter.\u00c2\u00a0 Alas, the hard life of a terrapin researcher presents one impossible challenge after another.<\/p>\n

\"05-05-5<\/a><\/p>\n

Large Female Terrapin Paddling through the Murky Rip<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The wind back-flipped to the northeast, blowing off the North Atlantic and returning temperatures to a springtime normal 54\u00c2\u00b0F. Water remained in the mid-60s and gusts kicked up an impenetrable chocolate murk. The lone capture of the afternoon tide came late in the flow and barely registered as she flooded through the rapids.<\/p>\n

\"05-05-6<\/a><\/p>\n

Female Terrapin #1006 <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Terrapin 1006 is a large mature female, nearly 19 centimeters long and weighing 1230 grams. She was last seen on the evening of 2 July 2000 as she floated through the rip in an equally murky low tide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Middle of Blackfish Creek Rip; Note Turtle Tracks from Sandbar Yes, the terrapin researcher lives a tough, lonely life … enduring elemental extremes of 72 degrees air temperature and 72 degrees water temperature … no office to call one\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s own … a small dinghy beached on a low tide sandbar the only place to hang […]<\/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\/5125"}],"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=5125"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5125\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5137,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5125\/revisions\/5137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}