{"id":8984,"date":"2011-04-27T13:08:55","date_gmt":"2011-04-27T18:08:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=8984"},"modified":"2011-04-28T10:24:49","modified_gmt":"2011-04-28T15:24:49","slug":"terrapins-of-outer-cape-celebrate-spring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=8984","title":{"rendered":"Terrapins of Outer Cape Celebrate Spring"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"run<\/a><\/p>\n

Female Terrapin 7086 — Why Is This Girl Smiling?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes, SPRINGTIME is finally here for the resident diamondback terrapins of Outer Cape Cod.\u00c2\u00a0 On Tuesday, Turtle Journal’s Sue Wieber Nourse ventured to the Fresh Brook Run in South Wellfleet wedged between Lieutenant Island to the north and Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary<\/a> to the south.\u00c2\u00a0 Temperatures finally\u00c2\u00a0had risen from the mid 40s to the\u00c2\u00a0low 60s with the threat of spring thunderstorms.\u00c2\u00a0 As Sue waded into the still chilly waters, she was greeted by pairs of smiling terrapins who were much too occupied with each other to realize a turtle\u00c2\u00a0researcher had approached with a large collection net.<\/p>\n

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\u00c2\u00a0Male Terrapin 9867 — Why is This Boy Smiling?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

To slightly\u00c2\u00a0amend Alfred Lord Tennyson’s oft-quoted sentiment, “In the Spring a young turtle’s fancy turns to thoughts of love<\/em>.”\u00c2\u00a0 And turtle\u00c2\u00a0fancies were turned in\u00c2\u00a0a big way\u00c2\u00a0on Tuesday afternoon in Fresh Brook Run.\u00c2\u00a0 Sue’s first capture was an unmarked mature female terrapin (now #7086) who\u00c2\u00a0had been\u00c2\u00a0cavorting with previously marked male terrapin #9867, a 10-year-old friend whom\u00c2\u00a0we had first\u00c2\u00a0seen in the Run in July 2007.<\/p>\n

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Mating Pair of Diamondback Terrapins<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0Male 9270 on the Left; Female 7087 on the Right<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Marking a great start to the new research season, Sue captured\u00c2\u00a0four pairs of\u00c2\u00a0mature diamondback terrapins in the low tide drained Run.\u00c2\u00a0 Of the four females, one was a recapture:\u00c2\u00a0 terrapin #9268, a 14-year-old female whom we had first netted in May 2009.\u00c2\u00a0 The others were first timers who had managed to escape our researchers for the last decade.\u00c2\u00a0 Of the four males, we had previously\u00c2\u00a0seen three\u00c2\u00a0in the Run,\u00c2\u00a0and one was a first time capture.\u00c2\u00a0 The adorable couple imaged above clearly illustrate “gender dimorphism”\u00c2\u00a0in diamondback terrapins.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s a fancy way of saying that females are bigger than males, a lot bigger.\u00c2\u00a0 In maturity, females are four times the mass and twice the length of males.<\/p>\n

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Male Terrapin 9083 Plastron<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Besides\u00c2\u00a0overall body\u00c2\u00a0size (dimorphism), we say there are three ways to distinguish males\u00c2\u00a0from females.\u00c2\u00a0 Male terrapin 9083 demonstrates\u00c2\u00a0these characteristics.\u00c2\u00a0 I ask that anyone too sensitive to hear unexpurgated truths skip to the video below.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

First, females must have a robust\u00c2\u00a0shape to accommodate eggs equal to more than 10% of their body mass.\u00c2\u00a0 So, we say that females have depth and males are shallow.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

Secondly, females have distinctly larger heads, while male crania are very small, indeed.\u00c2\u00a0 There is some casual\u00c2\u00a0talk\u00c2\u00a0about whether this cranial\u00c2\u00a0difference relates to the challenging role females play, or whether females are just smarter than males.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Some say\u00c2\u00a0females\u00c2\u00a0need\u00c2\u00a0more brainpower to negotiate their way over long\u00c2\u00a0distances\u00c2\u00a0back to their natal birth site, to confront upland predators along the way,\u00c2\u00a0and to locate, shape and disguise\u00c2\u00a0viable nests.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Males, on the other hand,\u00c2\u00a0have a simpler life; they forage, they bask, they mate.<\/p>\n

Finally, female terrapins have very small and thin tails that they tuck in closely to their bodies.\u00c2\u00a0 Males, on the other hand, have large, thick tails that are always prominently displayed.\u00c2\u00a0 Some less scientific individuals might be tempted to say that males simply have excessive libidos, but you won’t hear that from us.<\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n

Terrapins\u00c2\u00a0“Going Wild”\u00c2\u00a0in Wellfleet Bay<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

After the brief interlude with Sue, in which they were examined, measured, weighed and marked, these terrapins were released back into the Fresh Brook Run as it rapidly flooded\u00c2\u00a0with the incoming tide.\u00c2\u00a0 Perhaps it is only the eccentric turtler and\u00c2\u00a0inveterate poet\u00c2\u00a0in me, but I detect a certain skip in their step as these turtles\u00c2\u00a0waddle back into the tidal flats of South Wellfleet to resume what comes naturally to diamondback terrapins in springtime.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Female Terrapin 7086 — Why Is This Girl Smiling? Yes, SPRINGTIME is finally here for the resident diamondback terrapins of Outer Cape Cod.\u00c2\u00a0 On Tuesday, Turtle Journal’s Sue Wieber Nourse ventured to the Fresh Brook Run in South Wellfleet wedged between Lieutenant Island to the north and Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","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\/8984"}],"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=8984"}],"version-history":[{"count":34,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8984\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9029,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8984\/revisions\/9029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}