{"id":605,"date":"2008-09-24T10:18:17","date_gmt":"2008-09-24T14:18:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=605"},"modified":"2008-09-29T21:01:39","modified_gmt":"2008-09-30T01:01:39","slug":"the-new-naturalists-next-generation-of-herpetologists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=605","title":{"rendered":"The New Naturalists: Next Generation of Herpetologists"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Young Herpetologist Meets Her First Terrapin Hatchling<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The most sacred duty of any naturalist, especially one with thinning silver locks, involves sharing the experience of Nature and recruiting successors among the next generation to continue the critical mission of observation, documentation and conservation.\u00c2\u00a0 While my colleagues and I employ undergraduate and graduate interns each season to “learn the trade” of field science,\u00c2\u00a0our special joy comes from opportunites to engage with the youngest scientists, those for whom an adventure in the wild becomes a transformational experience that may change the course of their lives and the future of our world.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Don Lewis and Young Herpetologists with Terrapin Hatchlings<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Partnering with such exceptional conservation advocates as the Massachusetts Audubon Society<\/a>, the National Marine Life Center<\/a>, the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History<\/a>, and Massachusetts Marine Educators<\/a> (among too many others to mention in a short post), we have had the privilege to\u00c2\u00a0introduce children from\u00c2\u00a0nine months\u00c2\u00a0to\u00c2\u00a0nine decades\u00c2\u00a0to Nature through the unparalleled teaching model of turtles.\u00c2\u00a0 Seemingly helpless hatchlings melt the hardest hearts.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve\u00c2\u00a0watched jaded curmudgeons with expressions so sour they could change sunshine into hail; I watched their eyes mist as they witnessed a tiny hatchling poke its head through\u00c2\u00a0its eggshell at the instant of birth.\u00c2\u00a0 For children who come to the field with fewer preconceptions of the natural world, these interactions\u00c2\u00a0are pure joy.<\/p>\n

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Discovering a Hatchling as It Emerges from the Egg<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Because turtles, and especially hatchlings,\u00c2\u00a0appear so accessible to children, they create an\u00c2\u00a0immediate and tangible\u00c2\u00a0link with Nature.\u00c2\u00a0 In decades of\u00c2\u00a0wildlife research and education,\u00c2\u00a0we have never encountered a person WITHOUT a turtle story to tell.\u00c2\u00a0 Often an octogenarian will smile the smile of a todler\u00c2\u00a0as her eyes beam and she tells the tale of how her dad introduced her to a baby turtle he had found in the pond behind their home.<\/p>\n

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Baby Meets Baby<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

We can never forget the young girl who eagerly and\u00c2\u00a0tenderly held a four-year-old snapping turtle at the Earth Day celebration at\u00c2\u00a0Mass Audubon’s\u00c2\u00a0Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary<\/a> in 2003.\u00c2\u00a0 We\u00c2\u00a0wonder how she\u00c2\u00a0showed no fear of what this\u00c2\u00a0then timid turtle would become as it grew into a mighty and fearsome snapper.\u00c2\u00a0 She simply felt the joy of touching Nature in such a personal way.<\/p>\n

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Four-Year-Old Meets Four-Year-Old Snapping Turtle<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

During field season,\u00c2\u00a0we use every opportunity to involve children in our research, especially when releasing critters back into the wild.\u00c2\u00a0 On the beaches of the Outer Cape, the setting is perfect for youngsters to meet turtles in a completely natural venue and to learn about them in ways that books simply can never convey.<\/p>\n

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Turtles Create Transformational Moments<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

A message from today’s post?\u00c2\u00a0 Take every opportunity to introduce children to Nature and show them critters in their natural habitat.\u00c2\u00a0 The rewards\u00c2\u00a0of the moment will be enormous as you see pure, honest joy burst across their faces.\u00c2\u00a0 But this singular experience will pay dividends for a lifetime as memories form touchstones that will shape the\u00c2\u00a0course of their lives and the future of our world.\u00c2\u00a0 Bring your family into Nature and see what futures you, too,\u00c2\u00a0can create.<\/p>\n

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Hatchlings Released into Nursery Salt Marsh off Turtle Point<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Young Herpetologist Meets Her First Terrapin Hatchling The most sacred duty of any naturalist, especially one with thinning silver locks, involves sharing the experience of Nature and recruiting successors among the next generation to continue the critical mission of observation, documentation and conservation.\u00c2\u00a0 While my colleagues and I employ undergraduate and graduate interns each season […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[287,23],"tags":[318,330,334,325,333,321,326,311,12,324,310,331,829,315,332,309,313,6,40,304,314,130,306,320,322,262,327,64,13,308,303,186,329,71,307,305,316,25,323,302,319,828,312,328,317],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605"}],"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=605"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":641,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605\/revisions\/641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}