{"id":5425,"date":"2001-06-06T14:42:19","date_gmt":"2001-06-06T19:42:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=5425"},"modified":"2010-03-15T14:54:51","modified_gmt":"2010-03-15T19:54:51","slug":"an-unusual-day-%e2%80%94-6-june-2001","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=5425","title":{"rendered":"An Unusual Day \u00e2\u20ac\u201d 6 June 2001"},"content":{"rendered":"

With northwest wind howling across the bay, and salty foam frothing the creek like bubble bath, this morning\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s low tide seemed slightly off tempo and definitely in a minor key.\u00c2\u00a0 Even the turtles smirked a knowing glance that all was not quite well in the Land of Ooze.<\/p>\n

\"06-06-1<\/a><\/p>\n

Adult Male Terrapin #701<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Despite rough visibility, five terrapins were captured: one adult male (#701 above) and four pre-pubescent females.\u00c2\u00a0 Each in its way presented head-scratching anomalies.\u00c2\u00a0 Terrapin 701 was last seen exactly one year ago in the same spot, Blackfish Creek.\u00c2\u00a0 Since then he managed to ding his carapace midway along the left side marginals.\u00c2\u00a0 He also showed an injury to his right rear limb which left a small scar and two missing claws.<\/p>\n

\"06-06-2<\/a><\/p>\n

Normal 8-Year-Old Female Terrapin (left), Small 8-Year-Old Female Terrapin (right)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Then there was Turtle #1077.\u00c2\u00a0 She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a very small 8-year-old female with 17, vice 13, scutes on her carapace.\u00c2\u00a0 Several of her annual growth lines are tightly compressed, and at less than 11 centimeters carapace length and only 254 grams, she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s far below the growth model for an 8-year-old female \u00e2\u20ac\u201d much closer to the expected size of a male at that age.\u00c2\u00a0 Yet, all identifying sex characteristics mark her as female.\u00c2\u00a0 For comparison, see Terrapin 1078 (another and a typical 8-year-old female) and Terrapin 1077 below.<\/p>\n

\"06-06-3<\/a><\/p>\n

Traumatic Injury to Female Terrapin #1078<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Turtle 1078 doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t escape the weirdness of this day.\u00c2\u00a0 In fact, she may be the most unusual of all.\u00c2\u00a0 In every respect, #1078 seemed a well nourished and normal pre-pubescent female in her last season before full sexual maturity \u00e2\u20ac\u201d that is, nesting.\u00c2\u00a0 She measured 15.2 centimeters and weighed 567 grams.\u00c2\u00a0 The nesting threshold for Wellfleet Bay hovers around 15.75 centimeters and 650 grams.\u00c2\u00a0 But when she was examined closely, Terrapin 1078 showed serious recent trauma to her rear limbs.\u00c2\u00a0 It looked as though she had been caught in something and, in the struggle to break free, had injured herself.\u00c2\u00a0 With a deep gash and necrotic tissue showing on her right rear limb, we opted to rush her to the Humane Society\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Cape Wildlife Center<\/a> in West Barnstable under veterinary director Dr. Rachel Blackmer.\u00c2\u00a0 The consensus assessment was that the right limb would need to be amputated above the injury, but that the left would heal.\u00c2\u00a0 Under Dr. Blackmer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s medical care, there is every expectation that she will return to the wild in a little over three weeks, and with any luck, be nesting by this time next year.<\/p>\n

\"06-06-4\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Cape Cod Photo-Journalist Merrily Lunsford<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The other two captures were frisky juvenile females, 5 and 6 years old. Like all youngsters these critters were spunky and entertained the staff photographer, Merrily Lunsford,\u00c2\u00a0from the Cape Codder newspaper who tried to document their chaotic scramble back into the bay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With northwest wind howling across the bay, and salty foam frothing the creek like bubble bath, this morning\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s low tide seemed slightly off tempo and definitely in a minor key.\u00c2\u00a0 Even the turtles smirked a knowing glance that all was not quite well in the Land of Ooze. Adult Male Terrapin #701 Despite rough visibility, […]<\/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\/5425"}],"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=5425"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5425\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5434,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5425\/revisions\/5434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}