{"id":5199,"date":"2001-05-14T18:21:17","date_gmt":"2001-05-14T23:21:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=5199"},"modified":"2010-03-10T18:27:23","modified_gmt":"2010-03-10T23:27:23","slug":"the-great-desiccation-%e2%80%94-14-may-2001","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=5199","title":{"rendered":"The Great Desiccation \u00e2\u20ac\u201d 14 May 2001"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"05-14-1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Canine Depredated and Desiccated Over-Wintered Terrapin Nest<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Drought has real consequences on wildlife, and this morning I discovered its brutal effect on 33 over-wintering terrapin hatchlings.\u00c2\u00a0 The Cape has been precipitation poor for several months, and while residents have been blessed with pleasant sunshine, the ground has become exceedingly parched.\u00c2\u00a0 You may recall on Friday we discovered a live, but seriously dehydrated hatchling in a coyote predated nest on Lieutenant Island\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Turtle Point \u00e2\u20ac\u201d along with several desiccated hatchling remains.\u00c2\u00a0 So, today we patrolled another section of the south Lieutenant Island marsh to see if there were any other exposed nest sites.<\/p>\n

We found three within a 20-foot sandy stretch between the wrack line and an abutting bearberry hill.\u00c2\u00a0 In each case, the predator had dug until it reached the first desiccated remains, then broke off the predation and left the rest of the nest chamber intact.<\/p>\n

\"05-14-2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Second Desiccated Over-Wintered Terrapin Nest<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

As I excavated below the exposed egg, I discovered over-wintering hatchlings which had pipped, but remained inside their shells.\u00c2\u00a0 The first nest contained 8 dead, the second had 13 remains and 2 non-viable eggs, and the third held 12 desiccated hatchlings.\u00c2\u00a0 None had been disturbed by the predator once the initial dried-out turtle was encountered.<\/p>\n

\"05-14-3<\/a><\/p>\n

Third Desiccated Over-Wintered Terrapin Nest<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Hatchlings were normal in every way, and the condition of the nest chamber, the eggs and the babies precisely matched the pipped babies we rescued in the fall \u00e2\u20ac\u201d with one fatal difference.\u00c2\u00a0 These were all completely dehydrated, presumably caused by the spring\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s lack of precipitation.\u00c2\u00a0 Today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s discovery coupled with Friday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s may prompt us to rethink our fall nest strategy.\u00c2\u00a0 We had become more aggressive in recovering pipped hatchlings once we found pervasive fly maggot predation last year.\u00c2\u00a0 We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll now need to weigh the pros and cons of over-wintering nests.\u00c2\u00a0 True, we lost these nests to drought conditions.\u00c2\u00a0 But it seems likely that had not the drought intervened, these hatchlings would have been consumed by predators.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Canine Depredated and Desiccated Over-Wintered Terrapin Nest Drought has real consequences on wildlife, and this morning I discovered its brutal effect on 33 over-wintering terrapin hatchlings.\u00c2\u00a0 The Cape has been precipitation poor for several months, and while residents have been blessed with pleasant sunshine, the ground has become exceedingly parched.\u00c2\u00a0 You may recall on Friday […]<\/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\/5199"}],"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=5199"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5199\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5208,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5199\/revisions\/5208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}