MassWildlife urges drivers to watch for turtles

Across Massachusetts, spring is the season of movement. Hibernating animals emerge from their winter resting areas in search of food and mates. Turtles are no exception. From mid-May to early July, thousands of turtles throughout Massachusetts travel to new areas to find food and nest, according to a press release from the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife.

You may find turtles on roadways, in your backyard, or other unexpected locations as they move across the landscape to find resources they need to survive. Even if it’s not apparent to you where they’re headed, turtles have a keen sense of direction and may be on their way to wetlands or open, upland sites such as lawns, gravel pits, or roadsides for nesting. If you find a turtle, do not move it far away.

“Adult turtles can live past 80 years. Young turtles and eggs, on the other hand, have a variety of predators and a low chance of reaching adulthood,” says Dr. Mike Jones, MassWildlife State Herpetologist. “This is why it’s especially important to protect older adult turtles from cars, especially during this time of year when turtles are crossing roads more frequently.” Losing any adult turtles, particularly adult females, is a serious problem that can lead to the eventual local extinction of a population. See more about turtles crossing roads in our video.

Tips for Helping Turtles

As you drive throughout Massachusetts, keep turtles and other animals in mind. Follow these three easy steps to help ensure that our turtles have the best chance of survival this spring.

Be safe. Do not risk getting hurt or causing harm to others by unsafely pulling off the road or trying to dodge traffic. If the opportunity to safely move a turtle from the road occurs, move it in the direction it was heading and off the edge of the road. The turtle is trying to get to habitats and resources it needs and knows. Do not take turtles home or move them to a “better” location; turtles should not be moved more than 100 yards from where they are found. Most turtles should be grasped gently along the shell edge near the mid-point of the body. However, snapping turtles are fast and have very powerful jaws that can inflict a bad bite. A snapping turtle can reach your hands if you lift it by the sides of its shell. If you must move a snapping turtle, use a broom to coax it into a plastic tub or box. Never lift a snapping turtle only by the tail; this can injure their spine.

Slow down. Watch for turtles on roadways bordered by wetlands on both sides. These areas are commonly used as crossing points. Also, remember areas where you’ve seen turtles crossing in the past. Turtles are animals of repetition and chances are, more turtles will likely cross there or somewhere close by.

Inform us. If you see turtles crossing the road, report it! Information that you provide on the Linking Landscapes online portal helps MassWildlife and MassDOT prioritize transportation projects to help turtles and other wildlife safely cross roads and keep drivers safe. Just as importantly, contact your town Conservation Commission and local conservation partners to evaluate resources within your town to help turtles. Signage, barrier fencing, or seasonal speed bumps help reduce roadkill.

Massachusetts is home to ten different native species of turtles, not including five species of sea turtles that frequent our coastal areas. Six of the ten species are protected under the Massachusetts Endangered Species Act. Learn more in our Guide to Turtles of Massachusetts.

Source: SouthCoast Today

Movie Documents the 2014 Record Turtle Strandings on Cape Cod

Michele with a 50 lb juvenile loggerhead sea turtle that she had just carried off the beach. It survived and was later released. The larger, 275 lb female, did not survive.

It takes a village — a very big village — to save the Kemp’s ridley sea turtle from extinction. That’s one of the messages in “Saving Sea Turtles: Preventing Extinction,” a new feature-length documentary by filmmakers Michele Gomes and Jenny Ting of Seattle-based Interchange Media.

The film chronicles the 2014 sea turtle stranding season, which saw a record 1,242 turtles strand on the beaches of Cape Cod, and the combined efforts of conservationists, biologists, volunteers, members of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, politicians and the Coast Guard to save the endangered animals.

“That season was huge. Nothing ever came close to that,” Bob Prescott, director of Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary, told the Banner. “To put it in perspective, the previous record was 412 turtles.”

Prescott, who began the Cape Cod sea turtle rescue program 30 years ago, is featured in the film along with members of the sea turtle rescue community in Quincy, Texas, Florida, Georgia and Mexico.

“Saving Sea Turtles” focuses on the Kemp’s ridley, the smallest and most endangered sea turtle species in the world. Juveniles range from 12 to 15 inches and weigh between five and 10 lbs., while adults are between two and three feet and can reach 100 pounds, according to flyers at the Wellfleet sanctuary. They feed on crabs, jellyfish and fish and mate in Mexico and Texas.

Kemp’s ridley’s biggest threats along the east coasts of Mexico and the United States are habitat loss, becoming entangled in fishing gear, and oil spills.

According to the film, prior to the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010, there was a 12 to 15 percent increase in Kemp’s ridley nesting each year because of conservation efforts. Turtle recovery had researchers thinking that the Kemp’s ridley would be removed from the endangered species list. But after the oil spill, their numbers nosedived back to critical levels.

“It will take years to sort out all of the ramifications of what happened to the Gulf of Mexico environment and [the turtles] in the gulf,” Dr. Patrick Burchfield says in the film. He directs the Gladys Porter Zoo in Brownsville, Texas, another member of the sea turtle conservation village and leader of the Bi-National Turtle Conservation Project.

Almost all Kemp’s ridley females return to Rancho Nuevo in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas or Padre Island, Texas, where they lay their eggs. The hatchlings enter the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, then “they follow the warm water up to the Gulf of Maine, the fastest warming body of water on earth, and work their way down the coast,” said Prescott. “Once they get into Cape Cod Bay they can’t find their way out. It’s a trap. When water temperatures hit 50 degrees that’s when we see the turtles wash onto shore.”

It was during a visit to the Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary in 2013 that the filmmakers first heard about the sea turtles stranding.

“We thought we’d walk around and see some birds but instead [the guide] talked about sea turtles stranding,” Gomes said. “That really piqued our interest because I grew up in Rhode Island and went to Wellfleet bay beaches often in my teens and never heard about sea turtles in New England waters. And to find out that the rarest of the rare turtles were stranding there: that was it. We knew we had to make this film.”

As Gomes and Ting prepared to make their documentary, they happened to run into a friend in Seattle who was connected to the Kemp’s ridley conservation project in Mexico.

“Our friend was working with Papa Tortuga [director of the Tecolutla Turtle Preservation Project] down in Mexico who coincidentally started a sea turtle conservation project in his area the same year Bob Prescott started his project in Wellfleet,” Gomes said. “Papa Tortuga started a cultural revolution in his town in Mexico. Instead of eating these turtles, the people were invested in saving them.”

“We thought we’d be doing a movie about sea turtles on Cape Cod, and then we started following the turtles all the way to Mexico and Texas and then to Georgia and Florida, where the stranded turtles are released,” Ting added.

In 2014 the filmmakers rented a place in Truro and stayed for five weeks so, Ting said, they wouldn’t miss a beat of the stranding season. They had no idea that they were going to film the record-breaking stranding season.

“On our first trip out on Cold Storage Beach in Truro, the beach was literally littered with turtles,” Gomes said. “Jenny walked towards Provincetown and I walked the other way and within minutes we were both heading back carrying three turtles each.”

“That’s when I first realized why the volunteers in the rescue effort had such urgency in their voices. They were going out in 20-mile-per-hour winds and saying, ‘Come on, we have to go.’ They didn’t have time to wait around for us to get ready,” said Ting. “Then you’re out there holding a turtle and its life is in your hands and you get it.”

The 2014 season caught everyone off guard.

“It was hard to film at times because you just want to put the camera down and help,” said Ting.

And they did.

“Michele and Jenny were fantastic,” said Krill Carson, a turtle rescue volunteer and founder of the New England Coastal Wildlife Alliance. “They would throw down their cameras and help carry turtles, do whatever needed to be done. They were passionate about the turtles. We didn’t know when we were in it how huge the season was. There were so many turtles coming down the pipeline into the sanctuary, you just put your head down and kept going. Quincy, where all turtles have to go, was so backed up the sanctuary was turned into a triage. We had so many volunteers out there. Families, retired people, professionals, young, old, everyone just coming together and doing what was needed. It was like a MASH unit.”

Barry and Donna Tompkins, two volunteers assigned to patrol Rock Harbor Beach in Eastham, were on-call day and night during the 2014 season.

“When the winds were northwest and the water temperature was 50 degrees or below, we walked the beach at every high tide whether it was at three in the morning or 10 at night,” said Donna Tompkins. “There hasn’t been a season like 2014, before or since.”

“Cape Cod is ground zero for the Kemp’s ridley turtles,” Gomes said. “If it wasn’t for what they were doing, all those volunteers out walking the beaches in all weather and at all times of the day and night, those turtles would just die and the species would have less of a chance of surviving.”


[Article by By Bari Hassman / Banner Correspondent. Source: Wicked Local Cape Cod.]

• Great informative article about the filming of Saving Sea Turtles: Preventing Extinction HERE.

• The official website for the movie is here:  https://www.savingseaturtlesmovie.com/

Volunteers search beaches as turtle stranding season begins

By Doug Fraser


WELLFLEET — Charlie Marcus, 12, and his father Peter collapsed in their Eastham hotel room Monday night. They’d flown out from Los Angeles over the weekend specifically to go out on patrols with Massachusetts Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary volunteers, rescuing endangered tropical sea turtles that succumbed to the first cold water temperatures of the season and washed ashore.

Turtle stranding season is here, with 80 sea turtles rescued off Cape Cod Bay beaches over the past week, and brought into the sanctuary for their initial treatment before being shipped to the New England Aquarium turtle hospital in Quincy for rehabilitation.


Monday proved particularly tough. The winds turned bitter cold and blew hard out of the southwest, and the two walked the beaches, picking up helpless turtles and transporting them back to the sanctuary, where they also assisted staff and volunteers who were measuring, cataloging, and taking the first steps in treating the first big pulse of strandings this year.

“There was so much life and death all around us, we were exhausted,” said Peter as the two headed out Tuesday afternoon with volunteers Barbara Brennessel and her husband, Nick Picariello, of Wellfleet, for a mile-long patrol from Great Island to Duck Harbor.

“It was really cold and windy,” Charlie Marcus said.

Every year, hundreds, sometimes thousands of these cold-blooded sea turtles, Kemp’s ridley, green turtles, and loggerheads, become trapped in Cape Cod Bay in the fall, and either cannot find their way out or leave too late and hit a wall of cold water as they approach the open ocean and turn back to the fleeting warmth of the shallow bay. They attempt to shelter in place, waiting out what they may believe is a passing cold front. But with time and the deepening cold, their metabolism slows down and muscles no longer function. They surface, immobilized and at the mercy of the wind that either blows them toward the shore where they suffer from exposure to the biting winds, or out to sea where they eventually die.

Hundreds volunteer every year at the Wellfleet sanctuary for the turtle patrols and rescue work. Brennessel, a retired Wheaton College professor, found it was a natural extension of research work she’d done on terrapin turtles at the sanctuary, although her motives transcended the dispassionate approach of a scientist.

“Every animal is unique, and it’s important because they are endangered species,” she said as she rifled through a mound of dead eelgrass, extracting, and pocketing a plastic sandwich bag entangled in tangled black strands. “They are suffering too, and I feel compassion.”

Charlie was 5 when he read about the diamondback terrapins — which are endangered in Massachusetts, but not listed federally, and live in the brackish marshes from Cape Cod to Texas. He was moved by the Wellfleet sanctuary’s efforts to improve their chance for survival by improving habitat, protecting nests and raising hatchlings for eventual release, and started sending donations.

This year, for his bar mitzvah charity project, he decided to focus on sea turtles. Peter Marcus, a Los Angeles intellectual property rights attorney, was born in Brooklyn and lived in the Berkshires, but spent many childhood summers in Wellfleet. The two decided to return to the Cape to experience turtle rescue firsthand.

“Understanding the full spectrum of life is something I hope to teach my children in a way they don’t teach in school,” Marcus said.

“He’s got that empathetic gene,” Marcus said of his son.

All sea turtle species are listed under the U.S. Endangered Species Act.

“They’ve been here longer than people and we want them to stay that way,” Charlie said.



[Source and more photos can be found at the Cape Cod Times website HERE.]

Why Are Endangered Sea Turtles Showing Up Cold and Seemingly Lifeless on Northeastern Shores?

A green turtle undergoes its daily physical at the
New England Aquarium’s rehab facility. (Danielle Hall)

By Danielle Hall
smithsonian.com
December 29, 2016


A Kemp’s ridley turtle lies motionless, seemingly dead, along the high tide line on Skatet Beach. It’s exactly as Bob Prescott predicted. Prescott, the director of Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary on Cape Cod, bends down to move the turtle out of the reach of the cold ocean water, and covers it in seaweed to shield it from the wind.

It’s 6:45 a.m. on November 24, 2016. When Prescott looked at the weather report the previous night, he saw that one of the year’s first winter storms would soon be descending on New England, crossing the Northeast from Buffalo to the Eastern coast and bringing with it icy temperatures, lake effect snow, and chilling winds. That’s when he knew he would be up early in the morning, walking the beaches of Eastham and Orleans, in search of turtles.

The middle of October marks the beginning of a dangerous “cold stun season” for sea turtles caught on these Northeastern shores. Hundreds of turtles, mostly Kemp’s ridleys, wash ashore each year once ocean temperatures sink to 50 degrees F. The geography of the Long Island Sound and the curving Cape Cod Peninsula create a barrier to turtles trying to swim south, away from rapidly cooling waters. Before they can flee, icy waters often stun the cold-blooded reptiles into a paralyzed state, leaving them at the mercy of the tides, currents, and wind.

Fortunately, Prescott has cold stun stranding predictions down to a science. Using years of wind and stranding pattern data, he understands how turtles are pushed by wind to specific beaches along the inner arm of the Cape Cod peninsula. But it wasn’t until recently that experts were even aware of the mass turtle strandings that occur across Northeastern shores. Turtle bones from archaeological digs suggest the phenomenon has been occurring for hundreds of years, possibly since the formation of the Cape.

Whether turtles disappeared at some point from Northeastern waters or we simply were unaware of their presence remains unclear. But in the past 30 years, scientists have been stumped by a sudden upsurge in turtles found stranded, motionless and on the brink of death along these shores.

Read more at Smithsonian.com HERE.

Eversource and Mass Wildlife hold turtle protection program

Turtles are often killed by heavy machinery used along the pathways

By Adam Strzempko

AGAWAM, Mass. (WWLP) – Workers from Eversource, tree service contractors, and environmental consultants, along with biologists from the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife gathered on the pathway under the high tension power lines on Moylan Lane in Agawam.

“Eversource has more than 2300 miles of transmission rights-of-away in the three states that we operate, more than 600 miles here in Massachusetts. So we have a big stake in making sure that their habitat is protected and we take our role as an environmental steward very seriously,” said Frank Poirot of Eversource.

“Turtles can often get killed by machinery and heavy equipment so our goal is to train their staff as they’re working through these rights-of-way so they can avoid that direct mortality. Pick the animal up and move it to safety and continue on with the project,” said Mass Wildlife Endangered Species Biologist David Paulson.

The Eastern Box turtle and the Wood turtle commonly live and breed along transmission rights-of-way.

Every year Eversource holds the training for those who work along those paths.



Source and Video: WWLP 

Truro scientist finds link between box turtles and power lines

By Lee Roscoe
Banner Correspondent

March 20. 2016

Clarke placed transmitters on the backs of female box turtles and found that they flocked to the cleared areas under the Outer Cape’s power lines during nesting season. Photo courtesy Raymond Clarke

It’s not easy keeping up with box turtles.

Dr. Ray Clarke, a scientist who spent three years tracking the land-roving reptiles through the woods of Truro and Wellfleet, learned that first-hand.

“It’s hard work. You’re out in 80 to 85 degrees, alone. It's fine going through the pine oak forest. But when you enter the wetlands it can become impenetrable. Once I had a fall over muck — the log broke and I started to sink in. Brier can tear right through your jeans. Cell phone service is spotty,” Clarke says.

His study focused on how the right-of-ways around the Outer Cape’s power lines might be affecting the breeding habits and survival of Eastern box turtles, which are listed as a species of special concern in Massachusetts. A Truro resident, he’s received degrees from McGill and Yale universities and taught ecology and “many kinds of biology,” including evolutionary and marine, at Sarah Lawrence College, where he’s now a professor emeritus. He wanted to avoid retirement’s shock with an ongoing science project, so he brainstormed with Robert Cook, Cape Cod National Seashore ecologist, and initiated a study to appease his curiosity about the relationship between power lines and box turtles.

Clarke wasn’t sure he’d find turtles under the lines, but because he knew from the scientific literature that these terrestrial turtles like to nest in open, disturbed places, he guessed he would

He was correct. From 2011 to 2013, in May and June, he captured 18 females under NSTAR/Eversource power line right-of-ways from South Truro to North Wellfleet. As the turtles lay only four to six eggs, the nests were very hard to discover, so he qualifies the accuracy of whether they were nesting or not: "I only saw one turtle laying eggs, but the pattern of females moving to the right-of-way during the nesting season is pretty strong circumstantial support for that view."

With grants from the Cape Cod National Seashore and help from Lori Erb, who was surveying turtles statewide for the Mass. Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program, Clarke placed radio transmitters on the backs of adult female turtles, tracking them with a radio antenna.

“Each turtle’s ‘ping’ is a separate frequency, so you know who you’re following. My expectation was that when the signal would get loudest you’d be near the turtle. But radio waves bounce off trees and hills, and the terrain was hilly, so it could get frustrating when I couldn’t track them efficiently.”

It was a learning curve. “Using tracking equipment was new to me. I'm not a turtle guy. I’m a fish guy.” Describing years of field work, Clarke said he would scuba dive to do population studies of fishes of coral reefs, asking, “How can so many species, hundreds, exist together?” He wanted to understand how they compete and divide up niches, discovering in the process new information which he has published in scientific journals.

The biologist slogged on for more than three years, following his turtles from spring through November, until they dug into the soil under the leaf litter to hibernate. He found that “over a half to two-thirds came in from pretty far, from over 300 meters, to nest along basically a pretty narrow one-kilometer bandwidth the length of the right-of-way.” (He also placed data loggers in the earth to discover that nest areas were 12 or so degrees warmer than turtle hiding places in the forests.)

Clarke’s study suggests, but doesn't yet prove, "a potential for a significant negative impact of the right-of-ways on the long-term health of this population.” Using the “precautionary principal” Clarke advises, “We should avoid potential harm until we know more”— that is, until we know for sure that adult turtles nesting under lines on right-of-ways, as well as hatchlings, are not being run over by utility trucks or suffering illness or death due to sprayed chemicals such as Glyphosate, which the utility company uses to suppress weeds.

Clarke adds that the right-of-ways are also inviting to raccoons and other predators that dig up and eat eggs.

While the Seashore has the biggest population of box turtles in Massachusetts, Clarke says that because of their ability to attain advanced age — 50 to 80 years and beyond — the turtles may appear to be doing well when in fact, because their rate of reproduction is so slow, any hit to their population has repercussions for a very long time.

Clarke says he may write a memoir of his exploits as a field biologist. He is studying how to do that with Rosalind Pace, and his paper on the box turtle study is currently under peer review for possible publication.



Source: Wicked Local

Worker's snap decision saves turtle in Billerica

By Rick Sobey, rsobey@lowellsun.com


BILLERICA -- Instead of the chicken crossing the road, why does the turtle cross the road?

Actually, the more appropriate question on Wednesday in Billerica was: Who can help a very large snapping turtle cross the road?

Fred Baker of the Billerica Highway Department was the one to save the day, helping the snapping turtle get across Oak Street.

When he saw the turtle, Baker grabbed a neighbor's recycling bin. The heavy-equipment operator placed the turtle in the container and helped it across the street. He survived getting bit by the snapper, but it was close, said Highway Superintendent Ed Tierney.

Baker later told Tierney that he "did what anyone would do."

With many turtles native to Massachusetts labeled "endangered" and "threatened," it's more important than ever to save them, turtle enthusiasts say. For instance, the Groton Turtle Conservation tries to reduce the high injury and mortality rate of Groton's turtles on roads.

This wasn't the first Billerica Highway Department animal encounter. Last week, the department contacted Animal Control because a cat was stuck up in a tree. Animal Control called the Animal Rescue League of Boston, which came out to save the cat.

"We do come upon these once in a while," Tierney said, adding that employees and police once helped save six ducklings in a catch basin at the corner of Boston and Lasallette roads.

A very large snapping turtle was having a tough time getting across Oak Street in Billerica on Wednesday. He got some help from the Highway Department employee Fred who put him in a container and helped him across the street. SUN/JOHN LOVE

Read more: http://www.lowellsun.com/news/ci_28801258/workers-snap-decision-saves-turtle-billerica#ixzz3lZW6iuZ1

New England Aquarium to open new sea turtle hospital exhibit

BOSTON (AP) — The New England Aquarium is opening a new exhibit next week that highlights how it takes care of injured sea turtles.

Visitors to the interactive exhibit that opens Wednesday can learn how injured and endangered turtles are diagnosed, treated, rehabilitated, and then released back into the wild.

Visitors will hear how cold-stunned turtles’ hearts beat slower than healthy turtles after they wash ashore from cold ocean waters. They can see how turtles undergo CT scans, surgery, blood work, X-rays, and treatments with antibiotics, nutrients, and nebulizers. There are simulated respiratory, skeletal, and digestive diagnostic tests that visitors get a chance to try out themselves.

The aquarium last fall took care of more than 700 sea turtles that had stranded in the region.

Freshwater turtles find Cape safe haven

This box turtle isn't afraid to cross a lawn in Orleans. Staff photo by Rich Eldred

By Rich Eldred
reldred@wickedlocal.com


It’s time for a new press agent.

Lets face it. Our terrestrial based Testudines, that’s the order of shelled reptiles in zoological speak, or turtles for the layman, dominate Cape Cod from tip to tip. Yet it’s the saltwater variety that get all the press. And why? Because the wash up on our shores in a state of cold-stunned disbelief. Even the diamondback terrapin, which spends the winter safely hibernating in the mud of Wellfleet Bay, has books, such as Barbara Brennessel’s "Diamonds in the Marsh," penned about it.

But turtles of the freshwater persuasion get little respect.

Box turtles are no longer as common as they once were throughout southern New England, they don’t get along well with roads or manicured backyards. But southeastern Massachusetts is a population center and the numbers on parts of Cape Cod, such as the Orleans/Chatham area, are quite high.

Box turtles are the most terrestrial of all our turtles, they don’t even breed in the water. They’ll mate in the spring, when they meet beneath the powerlines, and sometimes in the summer, but the eggs must be laid in late spring, for it takes close to 90 days for them to hatch. Box turtles can actually lay eggs up to four years after mating.

They’ll dig a false nest or two before creating a real one. Nest predators plague all turtles; everything from raccoons and skunks to ants and plant roots.

Unlike other turtles the box turtle's lower carapace is hinged and it can shut its shell tight. So once a turtle reaches sufficient size it is pretty immune from predators and they are famously long-lived. Turtles 80 years of age have been documented and younger turtles, up to about age 15, can be aged by looking at the concentric growth rings on the scales of the lower shell, the plastron.

Roads are the greatest peril to the box turtle. Fortunately, most of their walking around is done just after dawn and in the summer heat they retreat to little coves or self-made shelters under blueberry bushes and leaves. They are more active during rainy weather but tend to have very limited home ranges, sometimes less than a football field in size.

Spotted turtles, with bright yellow spots on each scale of the shell, are not nearly as common as they once were on Cape Cod. They are highly aquatic and prefer swampy acidic cranberry bogs, small streams and weedy ponds to open lakes. The decline in wild cranberry bogs has probably pushed their numbers down to the point they’re now considered rare. They’re easiest to find in the spring when they’re looking for a mate, the dark waters are clear and the spots shine like beacons. Look for them in the ditches or canals of cranberry bogs, or in the flooded wild bogs in the dunes.

Spotted turtles don’t lay a lot of eggs, just three or four, and the use of pesticides in cranberry bogs, and their favored diet of insects, also limits their population.

Snapping turtles are the largest and fiercest freshwater turtles, the record is an 80-pounder and they can reportedly snap a broom handle with one bite. But if you aren’t a duck or a fish you aren’t in much danger if you see one in the water. They’re much more snappy when caught out of the water – note that their shells leave much of their body exposed compared to the box turtle. To compensate for relatively meager shells, the snapping turtle has a long neck that can reach back to its heels.
They are the only edible freshwater turtles, and at one time people would keep one in a barrel out back, fattening it with food scraps in preparation for turtle soup. They’ll range far from water to lay up to 80 eggs in a nest, and those nest are frequently dug out soon after. Never-the-less females after return year after year to the same nesting site.

Similar to snapping turtles but much smaller is the stinkpot or musk turtle. These are probably the least observed turtles on Cape Cod, but they aren’t uncommon. Unlike painted turtles they rarely bask, and seldom wander far from water. The 4-to 6-inch turtles look like oversized olive pits, their shells covered with algae, as the prowl the sandy bottom of large open ponds. They’re active at dusk and active at dawn.

They get their unflattering common name because they exude a stinky, foul-smelling musk when handled. Their shells are also relatively small, so they possess long necks, sharp jaws and a feisty disposition. You can expect them in almost any pond of size but they do like some vegetative cover.

Painted turtles, with their black carapaces and bright yellow plastrons are our most common and visible turtles. There are hundreds in Spring Brook at Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary and they love to bask on low hanging branches, rocks and on the knotty roots of wetland shrubs, plopping into the water when visitors walk by. They’ll even bask stacked up like boxes, you wonder how the lower turtle gets any sun. They need ultra-violet light to metabolize calcium to build their shells.

They’re struck with wanderlust and unfortunately are frequently run over by cars as they stroll from pond to pond. While other turtles hibernate the winter away, some painted turtles swim beneath the ice. They’ll begin basking as early as a warm march afternoon.

Their diet is split between plants and small fish, frogs etc.

The closely related Plymouth redbelly turtle is endangered in the state (just 300 left) and while it may have once occurred on Cape Cod is now restricted to large ponds in Plymouth County on the other side of the canal. Look for it in the Miles Standish State Forest in Plymouth. The turtle was once considered a separate species but is now considered a disjunct population of the red-bellied cooter, which ranges from New Jersey to Carolina.



Source: http://dennis.wickedlocal.com/article/20150504/NEWS/150509247/?Start=1 

Turtles, cute and in danger

Watch for them as they cross our roads

By Anne O'Connor, aoconnor@nashobapub.com



GROTON -- The group of women inside UNION Coffee Roaster in Ayer did not seem like they were out to change the world as they sipped warm beverages and chatted.

But, they take a saying by Margaret Mead to heart. "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."

Like the anthropologist who studied disappearing cultures in the 20th century, these woman study disappearing species. Specifically, they are studying and trying to save local turtles.

Jennifer Petit is a long-term member of the Townsend Conservation Commission.

Darcy Donald moved to Groton a few years ago and was horrified when she saw so many dead turtles along the road.

They, along with Joan Caruso, are part of Groton Turtle Conservation. After a meeting with members of Massachusetts Fish and Wildlife, they took time to talk turtles: Which ones are endangered, what to do about it and how cute they are.

Identifying turtles and where they live and breed is an important first step in protecting them. Some turtles are relatively common, like snapping turtles. Others, like painted turtles, are harder to find.

Blanding's turtles are one of the most rarely found and on the endangered species list. Shaped like a World War I helmet, these turtles with yellow under their chins do not breed until they are between 15 and 17 years old. They have nesting grounds in this area.

Spotted turtles, another species, are rare, they said, but some have been seen recently. "We need to get them documented," Petit said.

"Take a photo and send it to us," Donald said in a call for help from local residents. Be sure to get the underneath, called the plastron, if possible. The pattern on the belly of each turtle is unique, she said, like a person's fingerprints.

Injured turtles can be helped. If a turtle's shell is damaged, take it to the Tufts Wildlife Clinic in Grafton or to Carl Flinkstrom at the Lunenburg Veterinary Hospital for help.

They will ask for a donation, but do not charge to help wildlife, Petit said.

Turtles feel pain just like humans, Caruso said. Their nerves are part of their upper shell. It can take up to two years for an injured turtle to recover and be released into the wild.

"They have an incredible will to survive," Donald said.

Sometimes, even dead turtles have offspring that live. Eggs can be harvested from the body of a dead female. Last year, a rehabilitator hatched 83 of 85 eggs that were acquired this way, they said.

GTC works with a wildlife rehabilitator but did not want to release the name. In addition to the fear of burglars looking for veterinarian drugs, a black market for turtles exists. They are worth lots of money in certain cultures and thieves have been known to raid breeding areas.

"It's always our worry that after we do all this work that someone will just come in and scoop them," Petit said.

"And eat them," Caruso said.

Preventing turtle injuries is high on the list of priorities for these advocates. Turtles lay their eggs in wetlands and travel between bodies of water.

In their travels, they cross the roads. Many are crushed by passing vehicles.

After areas of high turtle mortality have been identified, there are some steps to take to help.

One of the simplest is signage. GTC is working with Tom Delaney, the Department of Public Works director in Groton, to install turtle crossing signs.

So far, with the help of the Girl Scouts, they have raised enough money for 13 permanent signs and posts, Donald said.

They had a few other suggestions for people wanting to help turtles. If one is crossing the road, bring it to the side it was heading for. Do not remove a turtle from its immediate environment; it will spend the rest of its life trying to get home.

Talking to people about turtles is part of their outreach plan. People were enthralled with what they had to say during Grotonfest last year.

"Joan and I, for eight hours, we stood up," talking about turtles, Donald said. "We didn't have time to drink our water or eat our lunch."

"It's so much fun," Petit said.

In their eyes, turtles have a high cuteness factor. They passed around cell phones with photos of hatchlings, oohing and aahing.

"They're the cutest things on earth," Petit said.

They expressed great sympathy for snapping turtles, a beast small children are warned to avoid. Like the name suggests, they snap at things.

There is a reason for that. The protective covering on the bottom of the animal is small, leaving part of the bottom of the animal exposed, Petit said. When they are on land, they are vicious.

"They have to be able to protect themselves," she said. "If you look at their little tummies there's all this meat."

They will leave you alone in the water, she said. Unless those waggling fingers look a bit too much like worms.

As hatchlings, the feared snappers are vulnerable to the smallest carnivores. "Chipmunks are the worst predators," Petit said.

For drivers, there are two times of year to watch for those turtle crossing signs. Mother turtles will begin to move to egg-laying ground in early to mid-May. In the fall, the hatchlings will leave the grounds, crossing the road the other way, to get to their adult habitat.

The Groton Turtle Conservation can be found online at grotonturtles.org or email grotonturtles@gmail.com.

Follow Anne O'Connor on Twitter and Tout @a1oconnor.



Source: http://www.nashobapublishing.com/community_news/ci_28019917/turtles-cute-and-danger#ixzz3YqFRVgif

'Protecting turtles and other wildlife on roadways'

Hundreds of animals die on Massachusetts roadways each year.

The "Linking Landscapes" project, a joint effort of Massachusetts Natural Heritage and Endangered Species and the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, is an effort to address and intervene, where possible, in the deadly intersection between wildlife and roads.

The Nashua River Watershed Association and Groton Turtle Conservation are co-sponsoring a free presentation about the project by David Paulson from NHESP on Wednesday, April 29, from 7-9 p.m. at the NRWA River Resource Center, 592 Main St., Groton.

The public is invited to learn more about this project, and those interested in volunteering to help with monitoring turtle crossings can receive training the same evening.

David will talk about the cooperative effort to identify areas on roadways with high levels of wildlife crossings and mortalities. Using over 350 citizen volunteers' data, the two agencies work to improve methods of road construction and conservation to protect wildlife.

This presentation will have a special focus on turtles of Massachusetts, including identification and natural history. Turtles have existed for millions of years, but roadways are threatening the survival of local populations. Turtles often cross roadways late spring to early fall and are vulnerable to car collisions. Turtle enthusiasts and conservation organizations are encouraged to act as citizen scientists by joining state wildlife and transportation personnel in collecting data for the Turtle Roadway Mortality Monitoring Program.

David will share the results from the first year of data collection. Following his talk, anyone who is interested in volunteering can remain for training with David. The information gathered through this volunteer effort will be used to coordinate local turtle conservation efforts.

Pre-registration is not required, but appreciated for planning purposes. To pre-register, contact Pam Gilfillan, NRWA development associate, at 978-448-0299, or email PamG@NashuaRiverWatershed.org.


Nashoba Publishing
POSTED:   04/24/2015
Source: http://www.nashobapublishing.com/community_news/ci_27980208/protecting-turtles-and-other-wildlife-roadways#ixzz3YH48GPac

Critically Endangered Sea Turtles Stranded On Cape Cod

QUINCY (CBS) — Biologists at the New England Aquarium’s rehab facility in Quincy are nursing nearly a dozen sea turtles back to health after they were stranded on Cape Cod beaches.

Senior aquarium biologist Adam Kennedy says they start to see turtle strandings on the Cape every year around this time as the temperatures drop.

“These turtles are warm-water animals,” he said. “In the summer, Cape Cod Bay is a great place, it’s warm.”

But when fall arrives and the turtles are supposed to head south, Cape Cod’s unique shape creates problems.

“The arm kind of acts as a trap,” Kennedy said. “They don’t understand they have to go north to get around the Cape to go south again.”

Eleven critically endangered Kemp’s ridley sea turtles were found cold and hungry, but all are expected to survive.

“What we’re seeing are turtles with cold body temperatures in the mid-to-high 50s, animals that probably haven’t eaten in about three to four weeks,” Kennedy said.

The focus is to slowly raise the turtles’ body temperature back to the mid-70s while getting them to start swimming and feeding again, Kennedy said.

“All the turtles so far, once they’ve entered the water, have started doing what turtles do – trying to swim,” he said. “Which is a good sign.”

Biologists hope to release the turtles into the wild from the south coast of the Cape in a few months.

Kim Tunnicliffe





Source:  CBS Boston

‘Turtleland’ Receives State Protections

Conservation land in Groveland and Georgetown, known to many as “Turtleland,” has been purchased by the state to create permanent open space.

Massachusetts Department of Fish and Game purchased 96 acres of land $795,000, bringing the agency’s area holdings to approximately 170 acres. The land was acquired through state open space bond funds and the Wildlands Stamp Fund. The Wildlands Stamp Fund receives $5 from the sale of each freshwater fishing, hunting and trapping license sold in Massachusetts.

“This property and the surrounding land is exceptional habitat for many different types of turtles and other wildlife,” said Department of Fish and Game Commissioner Mary Griffin. “I thank our partners for helping us to protect habitat, restore wildlife and provide recreational opportunities for people such as fishing, hunting and wildlife observation.”

According to the state, the conservation area is noted for reptiles and amphibians, abundance of wetland areas and undeveloped nature. It is one of the top habitats in Massachusetts for the threatened Blanding’s turtle and salamanders. Many common wildlife species, including white-tailed deer, wild turkeys, waterfowl, beaver, spotted turtles and snapping turtles also inhabit the area. The property contains three certified vernal pools, a large beaver pond, Grindle Brook and a stream.





Source: WHAV

World Turtle Day!

Today is World Turtle Day!

World Turtle Day, May 23, is an annual celebration of turtles and tortoises, but it's also an occasion to raise awareness about their disappearing habitats around the world. Having thrived for more than 200 million years, these endearing creatures are certainly worthy of celebration and awareness.

“Turtles are not as popular as cats and dogs, so interest, awareness and understanding is pretty slim,” says Susan Tellem, co-founder of American Tortoise Rescue. World Turtle Day was started 14 years ago by the ATR, who have rescued and re-homed over 3,000 turtles since Tellem and her husband founded the organization in 1990.

“This day is a good way to educate people about how to care for turtles, and to learn what danger they’re in and how to be more aware of what they need,” Tellem says.

Read the article in its entirety HERE.

What to do with jaywalking turtles?

May 19, 2014
To the editor:

As you drive around Rochester, you’ve probably noticed turtle crossing signs. But this time of year many drivers are encountering turtles crossing the road in unmarked places! Obviously, like many residents of Massachusetts, Rochester turtles flaunt the law and just jaywalk at will. What is a driver (or walker or biker) to do with these flagrant lawbreakers?

First, it might be best to identify the culprits. There are basically three members of the ancient (220 million years of history) order of Testudines, turtles, one might encounter in Rochester. Snapping turtles can be found near any wetland. They look menacing with a dark carapace (shell) often draped with algae, long nails, hooked beak and thick tail as long as its shell, not to mention its reputation of snapping and holding on. The carapace can measure up to 18 inches and the largest ever caught in Massachusetts weighed 76.5 pounds. Painted turtles are seen basking in rows on logs and rocks in any wetland in the spring. It is probably our most abundant turtle. Its dark olive to black carapace is bordered top and bottom with red and black designs. Its bottom shell (plastron) is usually yellow but may have markings on it. The legs and tail are usually red and black and the head is yellow and black. Finally, there are Eastern Box turtles, which are more tortoise like, although they also use wetlands. They have a high domed carapace with a brown to black background and yellow to orange marking in varying patterns. Its plastron is yellow to olive with varying black blotches or lines. It is also hinged so that the turtle may completely close itself up if it senses danger. There are some other kinds of turtles that may be found in Rochester, they but are extremely rare.

So why do these turtles cross the road? Well, like the chicken, to get to the other side. In the spring, the females are searching for somewhere to lay their eggs. One theory is that they can smell disturbed earth, especially sandy or gravel banks. Another theory is that they are returning to where they hatched. Whatever the reason, the proper etiquette if one sees a turtle in the road is to first do nothing to endanger your safety. If it is a snapper, you can just watch and wave off traffic or, if brave, grab a stout stick, let it snap on and drag it by the mouth to the other side where you can leave stick and turtle to sort it out. But if it’s a box turtle or painted turtle and traffic is light and you have the time, watch it. If you are in a hurry and think it might be hit by another car, pick up the turtle and carry it in the direction it was heading to the other side of the road. You might think it might be better to put it back in the wetland it came from or to bring it home to a safe place. Don’t do it. It is on a mission!

The bottom line is if you can do this small act of kindness to help a fellow creature without endangering yourself, please do. Remember Karma is always watching. And if you get to see where she digs and lays her eggs, you might want to cover the area with chicken wire to prevent predation of the eggs. But more than that, any encounter with a wild creature is a special occasion. The chance to observe and interact with a bit of our wild world is a wonderful thing. Embrace it. We are lucky to live in a town where this is possible to see and appreciate so much wildlife.

This tongue in cheek bit of education was brought to you by the letter T and the Rochester Open Space Committee, who thought you might like to know! If you have turtle or other nature related questions, you can call the Conservation Commission at Town Hall Annex.



Rochester Open Space Committee

Source: The Sippican Week

Endangered Species Act Protection Sought for Rare Turtles and Salamanders in Northeast

BOSTON--(ENEWSPF)--April 15, 2014.

The Center for Biological Diversity filed a formal notice of intent to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today for failing to determine whether five increasingly rare northeastern amphibians and reptiles warrant consideration for Endangered Species Act protection. The Center first petitioned for these species — the wood turtle, spotted turtle, green salamander, Peaks of Otter salamander and white-spotted salamander — in July 2012 because habitat loss and other factors are threatening their survival.  

“These turtles and salamanders are irreplaceable parts of the wild where they live, whether it’s a remote mountain stream or a suburban wetland,” said Collette Adkins Giese, a Center biologist and lawyer focused on protecting amphibians and reptiles. “Losing them will impoverish those places and our own connection with the natural world.”

Due to habitat destruction, toxic pesticides and other human causes, scientists estimate 1 in 4 amphibians and reptiles is at risk of dying out. This loss is alarming because the animals play important roles as predators and prey in their ecosystems and are valuable indicators of environmental health.

“There’s broad scientific consensus that amphibians and reptiles face a profound, human-driven extinction crisis that requires prompt action,” said Adkins Giese. “The Endangered Species Act has a nearly perfect record of stopping animals from going extinct — it’s hands-down our best tool for saving rare amphibians and reptiles.”

The Center was joined in its petition for these five species and other amphibians and reptiles by several renowned scientists and herpetologists, including E.O. Wilson, Thomas Lovejoy and Michael Lannoo. And more than 200 scientists sent a letter asking the Service to review the status of the petitioned animals.

The Fish and Wildlife Service is required to make an initial finding within 90 days of receiving a petition about whether protections may be warranted — but more than a year and a half later, the agency has not acted. The 90-day finding is the first in a series of required decisions and simply requires the Fish and Wildlife Service to determine whether the petition presents sufficient information to warrant further consideration, a process that requires few agency resources.

Wood Turtle

Species Highlights
Wood Turtles (Connecticut, Iowa, Maryland, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin): Hurt by the pet trade, channelization of rivers and streams, careless timber-harvesting practices along waterways, urbanization, and agricultural practices including pesticide use, the wood turtles’ remaining populations tend to be isolated, greatly reducing the chances of their natural recovery in areas where their numbers have plummeted. Traditionally low survival rates among juvenile wood turtles have been made worse by the increased prevalence of turtle predators, such as raccoons and skunks, which thrive in urbanized areas. Wood turtles have an unusual feeding behavior: They stomp their front feet to cause earthworms to come to the surface.

Spotted Turtles (Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, North Carolina, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Virginia, Vermont, West Virginia): A small, black turtle with yellow spots on its smooth shell, the spotted turtle is an attractive animal that’s another unfortunate favorite in the pet trade. It ranges from southern Ontario and Maine southward from the Atlantic coastal plain and piedmont to northern Florida and westward through Ontario, New York, Pennsylvania, central Ohio, northern Indiana and Michigan to northeastern Illinois. The turtle has likely suffered a 50 percent overall reduction in population size, with much of this loss irreversible because of habitat loss.

Peaks of Otter Salamanders (Virginia): Known only to a 12-mile stretch of Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains, Peaks of Otter salamanders have one of the most restricted ranges of any salamander in the United States. These darkly pigmented, 5-inch-long salamanders with brassy metallic spots occur only in mature oak and maple forests at high elevations, a trait that makes them particularly vulnerable to climate change. Because Peaks of Otter salamanders are confined to a single ridge top, they are unable to shift their range upslope as the climate warms. While the habitat of these salamanders is offered some protection in the Jefferson National Forest and on the Blue Ridge Parkway, activities like logging continue to threaten their viability.

Green Salamanders (Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia): While the range of the green salamander encompasses the entire Appalachian region, it exists only in habitat fragments with remaining populations experiencing extirpations and significant declines. The only member of the “climbing family” of salamanders east of the Rocky Mountains, green salamanders are found on rock outcrops and in arboreal habitats. During the spring and summer, breeding females require cool and moist narrow crevices in which to suspend their eggs, and in fall, the salamanders congregate near deep rock crevices for use during winter hibernation. The salamanders are threatened by logging, road construction, mountaintop removal mining, impoundments, overcollection for the pet trade and climate change.

White-spotted Salamanders (Virginia, West Virginia): This salamander has a narrow range in the Shenandoah, North and Great North mountains, in George Washington National Forest, Virginia and West Virginia. Its populations are declining and its occupied range is shrinking, mostly due to habitat loss from logging of the old-growth forests upon which it depends. At night these opportunistic carnivores feed on the forest floor during wet conditions, and in day they are found under rocks and logs or in burrows.

Spotted Turtle

The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 675,000 members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.

Source: http://www.biologicaldiversity.org

Help Turtles Cross the Road

How to handle a Snapper

When handling any live animal, it is important to always keep two safety issues in mind: first is the safety of the person who is searching for or holding the animal, and second is the safety and welfare of the animal itself.

It is a common misconception that a Snapping Turtle may be safely picked up by its tail, with no harm to the animal; in fact, this has a high chance of injuring the turtle, especially the tail itself and the vertebral column. A handler must also be wary of injury to themselves. Snapping turtles are aptly named, as they can snap with amazing speed and power; a full grown snapper can easily nip off a finger. The safest method, of course, is to avoid handling a snapper at all. If moving it is absolutely necessary, scooping and lifting the turtle just off the ground with a shovel (especially a snow shovel), if done quickly, may be safest and easiest for all concerned parties.

Lifting the turtle with the hands is difficult. Some snappers can stretch their necks halfway back across their own carapace. Manual lifting (which should be done only if no other options are available) is best accomplished by sliding fingers behind the turtle's hind legs, with the tail between the hands and gripping the turtle between the fingers and thumbs. The handler then proceeds to lift the turtle only just off the ground. The turtle will probably squirm and try to dislodge the handler's hands with its hind legs. Even a small snapper is relatively powerful for its size, with long sharp claws; further, due to their aquatic inclinations these turtles are often slimy and wet, and they are good at causing prospective handlers to lose their grip. In any case that a snapping turtle must be handled, it is best to have the turtle on the ground or very close. Wild turtles may be covered with a smelly pond slime and may also defecate, urinate, or musk on a handler.

More information HERE.

Giving Turtles a Head Start

By Alix Morris


Why did the turtle cross the road? The original theory for the declining Blanding’s turtle populations in urban areas was that adult turtles were run over by cars. When biologist Dr. Bryan Windmiller and his colleagues began tracking turtle populations in Massachusetts, they found this was not the case. Survivorship of adult turtles was actually quite high. Instead, they encountered a different problem – there were very few young turtles, and almost no hatchlings.

In the wild, under any conditions, turtle eggs and hatchlings are susceptible to a variety of predators, including chipmunks, herons, frogs, and raccoons. When Blanding’s turtles hatch, they have soft and flexible shells for the first year of their life, which offer little protection.

Moreover, hatchlings who are able to survive don’t eat from the time they hatch in the late summer or early fall until the following spring. As a result, they can lose weight during their first six months, further jeopardizing their potential to survive.

“If it’s possible to do something for these guys before they grow, we might be able to help them,” said Windmiller.

Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge in Concord, Massachusetts has the state’s third largest population of Blanding’s turtles. Yet over the past 40 years, the population of turtles has declined by more than 50%.

In 2003, Windmiller launched a trial method to protect the endangered turtles through the Great Meadows Blanding’s Turtle Conservation Program. Windmiller and his team of volunteers would collect the hatchlings and transfer them to schools, zoos, and aquariums across the state to monitor their feeding and care for nine months – a process Windmiller calls “headstarting.”

Through the headstarting program, the turtles are kept in warm water, which increases their appetite and helps them to grow. The students and researchers who monitor them feed them twice daily.

In captivity, the turtles grow at a rate four times what they would do in the wild. By the end of nine months, they are as large as four-year-old turtles with hard shells. They are then released back into their original habitat. Headstarting increases the survival rate of turtles by 20 times that of wild turtles.

Not all researchers agree with the headstarting program, however.

“Among biologists there’s a divide between people who more readily accept the idea that in the 21st century, if you’re interested in helping to maintain populations of rare and vulnerable species in parts of world where human impact is high, you need to intervene,” said Windmiller. “There are some biologists who are comfortable with that and some who are less comfortable.”

Windmiller hopes that as new and better data comes in from the headstarting project, they will be able to show that not only are they stopping the decline of turtle populations, they are actually reversing it.






Source: PLOS.org

Turtle Girl with a Mission

Chelmsford girl's mission is to protect area turtles
By Molly Loughman/mloughman@wickedlocal.com
Chelmsford Independent


Chelmsford —

Increasing respect and knowledge for the world’s oldest creatures, World Turtle Day is coming to Chelmsford, thanks to one 11-year-old’s determination to bring awareness to the gentle animals facing extinction.

Parker Middle School fifth-grader Katarina Monnes will host a turtle awareness and children’s activities program at the Chelmsford Library on Thursday, May 23, from 3:30 to 5 p.m., as a part of her Girl Scouts Bronze Award project.

"They are interesting creatures. They have been around since before dinosaurs and have many unique characteristics. Did you know turtles never age? Some scientists are studying that. They can live to be over 100 years old, and only die from injury or disease, not old age," said Monnes, who has raised funds for several national turtle foundations.

The turtle hurtle

Monnes is now making it her mission to save local turtles, of which at least three of the six species are listed as threatened or endangered. In Chelmsford, there are box turtles, painted turtles, snapping turtles, bog turtles, red-eared slider turtles and wood turtles. The wood, box and bog turtles are endangered species.

"I hope people learn how to help, what we’re doing wrong to hurt the turtles, how we can stop that and more ways we can bring up the number of turtles," said Monnes, who participated in a Junior Vet program at the Loggerhead Marine Rescue Center in Juno Beach, Fla. last year.

Since embarking on her Bronze Award project, Monnes met with Alexxia Bell, a founder of the Turtle Rescue League, to gain information about the species and ways to help.

With the help of her Girl Scout Troop 66349, Monnes will paint 10 Turtle Crossing signs for the Turtle Rescue League, using wood donated by the Chelmsford Lumber Company. Some turtle awareness signs near wetlands around town were stolen. Monnes plans to post more, especially on Smith Street, which abuts a large wetland complex associated with River Meadow Brook. Monnes’ turtle sign paint and supply was donated by Chelmsford’s Sherwin Williams store.

To get to the other side

"Turtles are endangered because of development (loss of habitat), pollution and being hit by cars on roads and injured by mowers," said Monnes, who encourages other to post signs where turtles are being killed or injured.

Monnes and her troop will also aid the Chelmsford Conservation Commission by cleaning up local turtle nesting areas, including Crooked Spring Pond at the end of the month. In addition, they’ll conduct turtle spotting over the summer to check for injured or dead turtles.

"Be careful when mowing and avoid mowing fields in June and August, take shorter showers and restrict lawn watering (to conserve water and avoid draining our ponds), recycle and cover your trash and recycling bin," Monnes said.

On Thursday, Monnes, with the help of Cori Rose of CCC, will provide a poster identifying heavy turtle crossings streets in town and where people need to be especially cautious during May and June, which is turtle hatching season.

"In the spring, usually between May and June, the mature female turtles leaves the wetlands, streams and woods to travel to nesting sites to deposit their eggs. This is when single adults are likely to be lost to roadway mortality," said Rose, adding in August and September after hatching from the nest, the hatchling turtles start making their treacherous trip back to their natural habitats where they will spend most of their life.

"If people can be vigilant and slow down in known crossing or nesting areas, especially at dusk and dawn after a day of rain in May and June, individual mortality and population-level impact could be reduced," she said.

Monnes will create flyers for neighborhood distribution informing others to watch out for turtles and encourage people to help the turtles they find on the roads.

According to Rose, if a turtle is in the road, try to protect it while it crosses, if it is safe to do so. If a turtle needs assistance to cross a road, always take it across the road in the direction it was heading. Try to minimize handling as much as possible. Hatchlings can be relocated by bucket.

"Not only can adults learn about turtles, but even kids. I’m hoping kids will learn not to take them home for pets and learn about how you can help. I’m hoping to get at least 20 people," said Monnes, explaining turtles shouldn't be sold in pet stores.

For more information or how to help turtles, visit turtlerescueleague.com. For lists of turtles in Mass. and to sign up to be a "turtle spotter" for the Turtle Atlas, visit turtleconservationproject.org

Turtles in the road
1. The intersection of Riverneck Road, Billerica Road (Route 129) and Turnpike Road
2. Concord Road and Boston Road (Route 4) in the vicinity of Harvey Road
3. Boston Road in the vicinity of Wildes Road and Roberts Street
4. Brick Kiln Road near Alpine Street and UPS Road
5. Riverneck Road near Canal Street and between Route 3 and the Lowell Connector
6. Smith Street, near Steadman Street
7. Near the intersection of Main Street and School Street
8. Littleton Road between Tadmuck Road and Garrison Road
9. Acton Road between Greenwood Road and Hart Road
10. Littleton Road (Route 110) between Enterprise Bank and Town Center
To monitor turtle crossings on your own with the help of online database reporting or to work with someone from the Conservation Commission, call 978-250-5248 or email aleflore@townofchelmsford.us





Source: http://www.wickedlocal.com/chelmsford/news/x83397132/Chelmsford-girls-mission-is-to-protect-area-turtles#ixzz2U9gx3Aof

Ignore, Rescue, or Obliterate that Turtle in the Road?

Traffic mortality is a significant threat to many species of turtles. There have been experiments -- both formal and informal -- on the human-animal relationship and intentional animal-automobile collisions.

Ignore, rescue, or obliterate that turtle in the road?

In an article, titled Road Kill and The New Science of Human-Animal Relationships, by Hal Herzog, Ph.D., in Pschology Today, he wrote; "The new science of human-animal interactions, anthrozoology, rests on a premis by the French anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss. "Animals," he wrote, "are good to think with." His point was that we can learn a lot about human nature by studying how we think about and act toward other species." Dr. Herzog goes on to describe the experiment. "The experiment was simple and elegant. The researchers placed realistic rubber models of a turtle and a non-poisonous snake in the middle of a road and watched what happened. They also included a turtle-size Styrofoam cup and a thick line of grease the size of the snake for controls. During the trials, either an animal model or a control stimulus was put on the center line of a two-lane rural highway. The researchers recorded whether the drivers (a) ignored the stimulus, (b) swerved to intentionally hit it, or (c) pulled over to the side of road and rescued the model. (No one tried to rescue the plastic cup or the streak of grease.). They ran 500 trials for each of the four stimuli, and they also noted the sex of the drivers." You may read the entire article, with its results, HERE.

In the article below, College student's turtle project takes dark twist, the findings of the student's experiment is disturbing -- but not surprising. I did a roadkill study, a number of years back, for two years. And I found that most of the fatalities were to the side of the road -- the breakdown lane. And actually, one time, as I was about to approach a Painted Turtle to help it complete its journey across the street, a car came speeding along side and swirved into the breakdown lane and crushed it right before my eyes.

Unbeliveable, right? Read on.

---

College student's turtle project takes dark twist
By JEFFREY COLLINS | Associated Press –  Dec 27, 2012



CLEMSON, S.C. (AP) — Clemson University student Nathan Weaver set out to determine how to help turtles cross the road. He ended up getting a glimpse into the dark souls of some humans.

Weaver put a realistic rubber turtle in the middle of a lane on a busy road near campus. Then he got out of the way and watched over the next hour as seven drivers swerved and deliberately ran over the animal. Several more apparently tried to hit it but missed.

"I've heard of people and from friends who knew people that ran over turtles. But to see it out here like this was a bit shocking," said Weaver, a 22-year-old senior in Clemson's School of Agricultural, Forest and Environmental Sciences.

To seasoned researchers, the practice wasn't surprising.

The number of box turtles is in slow decline, and one big reason is that many wind up as roadkill while crossing the asphalt, a slow-and-steady trip that can take several minutes.

Sometimes humans feel a need to prove they are the dominant species on this planet by taking a two-ton metal vehicle and squishing a defenseless creature under the tires, said Hal Herzog, a Western Carolina University psychology professor.

"They aren't thinking, really. It is not something people think about. It just seems fun at the time," Herzog said. "It is the dark side of human nature."

Herzog asked a class of about 110 students getting ready to take a final whether they had intentionally run over a turtle, or been in a car with someone who did. Thirty-four students raised their hands, about two-thirds of them male, said Herzog, author of a book about humans' relationships with animals, called "Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat."

Weaver, who became interested in animals and conservation through the Boy Scouts and TV's "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin, wants to figure out the best way to get turtles safely across the road and keep the population from dwindling further.

Among the possible solutions: turtle underpasses or an education campaign aimed at teenagers on why drivers shouldn't mow turtles down.

The first time Weaver went out to collect data on turtles, he chose a spot down the road from a big apartment complex that caters to students. He counted 267 vehicles that passed by, seven of them intentionally hitting his rubber reptile.

He went back out about a week later, choosing a road in a more residential area. He followed the same procedure, putting the fake turtle in the middle of the lane, facing the far side of the road, as if it was early in its journey across. The second of the 50 cars to pass by that day swerved over the center line, its right tires pulverizing the plastic shell.

"Wow! That didn't take long," Weaver said.

Other cars during the hour missed the turtle. But right after his observation period was up, before Weaver could retrieve the model, another car moved to the right to hit the animal as he stood less than 20 feet away.

"One hit in 50 cars is pretty significant when you consider it might take a turtle 10 minutes to cross the road," Weaver said.

Running over turtles even has a place in Southern lore.

In South Carolina author Pat Conroy's semi-autobiographical novel "The Great Santini," a fighter-pilot father squishes turtles during a late-night drive when he thinks his wife and kids are asleep. His wife confronts him, saying: "It takes a mighty brave man to run over turtles."

The father denies it at first, then claims he hits them because they are a road hazard. "It's my only sport when I'm traveling," he says. "My only hobby."

That hobby has been costly to turtles.

It takes a turtle seven or eight years to become mature enough to reproduce, and in that time, it might make several trips across the road to get from one pond to another, looking for food or a place to lay eggs. A female turtle that lives 50 years might lay over 100 eggs, but just two or three are likely to survive to reproduce, said Weaver's professor, Rob Baldwin.

Snakes also get run over deliberately. Baldwin wishes that weren't the case, but he understands, considering the widespread fear and loathing of snakes. But why anyone would want to run over turtles is a mystery to the professor.

"They seem so helpless and cute," he said. "I want to stop and help them. My kids want to stop and help them. My wife will stop and help turtles no matter how much traffic there is on the road. I can't understand the idea why you would swerve to hit something so helpless as a turtle."

Source:  Yahoo! News

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An informal experiment.

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There are things that we can do to help. You can read more about what you can do to help in the article, "My View: Slow-moving turtles increasingly at risk in our fast-paced world." 

It all comes down to educating the public. Perhaps advocating for roadkill awareness to the DMV to introduce this into their Driver's Manual. Nowhere in their manual do they mention animals, (with the exception to horse-drawn vehicles), or roadkill. 

Citizen involvement in turtle conservation efforts can help ensure that turtles will continue to be around to perform their role in the environment, and for future generations to observe and enjoy as part of our natural heritage.