Spring brings out the snapping turtle to lay eggs on land

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Story and photos by STAN FREEMAN

sfreeman@repub.com

In spring, a female turtle can be, well, a fish out of water.

Those that inhabit ponds, lakes and rivers are emerging from them early this month to lay their eggs on dry land.

And for one species, the common snapping turtle, it is the time of year when you're most likely to see this super-sized reptile. The rest of the year, this belligerent-looking animal is usually hunkered down in the mud underwater, feeding on whatever happens to pass by its considerably strong jaws.

The largest of Massachusetts' native turtles found inland (one caught in the state weighed 76 pounds), the snapping turtle appears almost prehistoric, like a leftover from the age of dinosaurs, with its craggy shell, sharp claws - and did I mention those jaws?

A lot of tall stories are told about snapping turtles, said Alan M. Richmond, a herpetologist at University of Massachusetts in Amherst.

"I got one e-mail from someone who saw one in Forge Pond in Granby and said it was the size of a Volkswagen Jetta. But usually they run 10 or so pounds, with the bigger ones going up to 35 pounds, with a (shell) length of up to 19.5 inches. So when you see people holding their arms all the way out and saying they saw one this big, I think they might be mistaken," he said.

How strong are their jaws? As adults, they have no natural predators. A large snapper could bite off a finger or toe. And on land, they can be aggressive, swiftly lunging and snapping at perceived threats. So they should be approached with great care.

"However, they're pretty timid in the water," Richmond said.

"Their normal tendency is to try and escape. If they're in the water, they want to get away from you. That's not to say that if you were trying to abuse one in the water, it wouldn't try and defend itself," he said.

Common snappers sexually mature at about 5 to 7 years, and they can live to about 40. A female snapper looking to lay eggs will usually seek out a nest site in an open area 100 yards or more from water. A shallow hole will be dug in soft sand or loam, or it might be excavated in vegetation debris or a sawdust pile, or a nest could be fashioned in a beaver or muskrat lodge. Typically, 20 to 40 golf-ball-sized eggs will be laid in a clutch.

"They are out laying eggs about now," Richmond said. "The young will emerge in late August or early September, but if environmental conditions aren't perfect, the little turtles will hatch and stay in the nest over the winter."

Interestingly, the gender of a baby snapper is determined not by genetics, but by the temperature of its surroundings during the incubation period. Typically, at 68 degrees Fahrenheit, there will be only females. At 71 to 74 degrees, there will be both males and females. And from 75 to 79 degrees, you would get all males. From 80 to 85 degrees you would again get males and females, but at 86 degrees, there would be only females.

"What a great mechanism. If you have a nest in a sunny area, you might have females on the top, males and females in the middle and on the bottom you might have all males," he said.

However, in the long run, factoring in all kinds of weather, equal numbers of males and females manage to be born, he said.

If, in coming weeks, you should encounter a snapping turtle crossing a road or traveling somewhere that it shouldn't, and it must be moved, either for its own protection or someone else's, what's the best way to move it?

Richmond said that it should not be picked up by the tail. "That can injure it."

Also, with its surprising quickness and habit of snapping, the shell should not be picked up with hands by someone who doesn't handle snappers regularly.

A snapper has a much longer neck than you would expect - it can typically reach almost halfway back across its shell with its head.

One way to approach the task is to grab the tail and then slide a hand from the rear under its belly and pick it up like a platter to carry it to safety. Another method is to maneuver a snow shovel under it, without getting too close to its jaws, and then slide it to a safe location.

Absent a handy snow shovel or the courage to get a hand near it, though, call the environmental police or the local police.

Source: http://www.masslive.com/metroeastplus/republican/index.ssf?/base/news-4/1244445808254170.xml&coll=1

READY, SET, CRAWL

READY, SET, CRAWL: 138 endangered turtles released in Middleboro





MIDDLEBORO —

For 138 turtles, it was a chance to find a new home. For the kids and adults, it was just plain fun.

Northern Red-bellied Cooters took to the water during Monday’s 29th annual turtle release on the shores of Great Quittacas and Pocksha ponds.

Procaccini, 3, of Lakeville, was there with her mother, Sarah Procaccini of Lakeville, and her three siblings — Caleb, 5, Aaron, 1 and 4-month-old Joey.

“When I feeled it, it felt like it was going to bite me,” said Hannah. “He didn’t bite. I put it in the water and he went somewhere over to the beach.”

But the event didn’t attract only kids. Ruth E. Watt, 83, of Middleboro, wasn’t interested in releasing a turtle herself, she just wanted to see was it was all about.

“It was my first time seeing it,” she said. “It was fun.”

Found only in Plymouth County, the Northern Red-bellied Cooters are on the state and federal endangered list. Marion Larson, a biologist with the state Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, said the turtles were collected from their nests last fall and “headstarted” — nurtured over the winter by volunteers across the state.
When raised in warm aquariums over the winter with an unlimited food supply, their growth is accelerated, and larger turtles are not as vulnerable to predators when released.

Lawson said the turtles are marked with a code so biologists can identify them. So far, about 3,000 turtles have been released since the program began in 1980, Lawson said.

For environmentalists, it was a big day in Middleboro. In addition to the turtles, a pair of eaglets were banded on Pocksha Pond. The pair, weighing in at 8 pounds and 7.25 pounds, were banded by Jason Zimmer, south east district manager of the Division of Fisheries and Game.

A climber went up the tree where the eagles were nesting, lowered the eaglets in a basket to be weighed in and banded. So far the nest has been active since 1993, and this year’s young bring the grand total to 29 eaglets that have been born in Lakeville, said Catherine Williams spokesperson for the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs.

During the winter survey, there were about 80 bald eagles counted across the state, Williams said.

Dru Carbone of Middleboro was there to learn how to care for her painted turtle that the cat dragged to her doorstep 15 years ago. She was told that even though her turtle has been in captivity for several years, it can be released in the wild.

“I probably will,” she said, but it will take some time. “It’s my baby.”

Carbone lives close to Pocksha Pond, and said turtles are her passion. “I love turtles, they’re amazing.”

Source: http://www.enterprisenews.com/lifestyle/x313668476/READY-SET-CRAWL-138-endangered-turtles-released-in-Middleboro

Rare baby turtles released near Middleborough ponds

By Michele Richinick, Globe Correspondent

As part of an ongoing effort to protect endangered species, 138 baby turtles were released into the wild this morning between Pocksha and Great Quittacas ponds in Middleborough.

The Northern Red-Bellied Cooters were removed from the wild last fall and paired with educational and scientific facilities across the state as part of a program called Headstarting, which helps to accelerate growth and reduces the likelihood of death during a turtle’s first year of life.

Each year, participants from Massachusetts schools and nonprofit organizations raise the turtles in warm aquarium environments with unlimited food, which allow them to grow faster and ultimately make them less vulnerable to predators in the wild, officials said.

"The idea is to give the species a good head start on life," said Lisa Capone, press secretary for the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs. "It's also a great educational opportunity for the schools and nonprofit groups that take part."

Participants in the program release the turtles into a habitat where there is evidence of existing turtles, said Jason Zimmer, southeast district manager for MassWildlife. A portion of the turtles are always released in Middleborough, but some of the turtles are set free in ponds throughout southeastern Massachusetts.

Originally known as the Plymouth red-belly turtle, Northern Red-Bellied Cooters are listed as endangered species at both the state and federal levels and are found only in southeastern Massachusetts. They are the state’s second largest freshwater turtle, after the snapping turtle. They can grow up to 12 inches and weigh up to 10 pounds, according to the Natural Heritage & Endangered Species Program. Hatchlings are usually one inch long and, like adults, they have yellow stripes on the head, neck, and limbs.

Hatchling mortality is high for the species, with intense predation on the eggs by skunks and raccoons. Bullfrogs, wading birds, and predatory fish, like bass and pickerel, also prey on the turtles.

Students from 14 Massachusetts schools and colleges participated in the program, along with Zoo New England, Museum of Science, New England Aquarium, Berkshire Museum of Pittsfield, Buttonwood Park Zoo of New Bedford, National Marine Life Center of Bourne, the South Shore Science Center of Norwell, and the Thornton Burgess Society of Sandwich.

Source: http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2009/06/rare_baby_turtl.html

Turtle Journal team to speak at Mattapoisett Land Trust Annual Meeting

Mattapoisett - Don Lewis and Sue Wieber Nourse, the Turtle Journal team, will offer a multimedia presentation on turtles of the South Coast and Cape Cod on June 6, for the annual meeting of the Mattapoisett Land Trust at the Friends Meeting House on Route 6 in Mattapoisett.

The public is invited to attend the meeting, which begins at 1 p.m., and a potluck supper that will precede the meeting at noon.

Through the magic of virtual media, Lewis and Nourse will transform the Meeting House into a summer field site, so that kids from 4 to 100 can experience the transformational adventure of turtle exploration and discovery.

Lewis and Wieber Nourse will share their experiences working with rare and endangered turtles, rescuing stranded sea turtles, protecting young hatchlings, and generally saving the world one turtle at a time

In lights and sounds, turtles will wake from a long winter slumber to emerge from primordial ooze and bask in spring sunshine. Once warm and active, adults will wander into the singles’ bar, known less affectionately, albeit more scientifically, as a mating aggregation. Weeks later, females will trek over obstacles to reach their natal nesting sites and deposit a clutch of eggs representing the next potential generation of turtles. As the season progresses, hatchlings will puncture their eggs with a singular egg tooth and emerge from the sand to take their first breath of life as they scramble to the relative safety of nursery habitats.

Whether a threatened diamondback terrapin or a protected Eastern box turtle, these listed species will reveal secrets about what makes shelled critters such wild and wonderful bellwether species within Nature. As their populations tumble, so goes the quality of the world around us. As they prosper, we see positive advances in the quality of our own lives, too.

Five species of endangered and threatened sea turtles that inhabit our bays and coastline will visit the Meeting House virtually. A 950-pound leatherback sea turtle, mortally trapped in lobster buoy lines, will be disentangled and rescued. The audience will patrol storm tossed beaches of Cape Cod Bay in a fall nor’easter to rescue the most endangered sea turtles in the world, Kemp’s ridleys, as well as loggerheads and green sea turtles.

If the weather gods cooperate, a couple of surprise hard-shelled guests will join the presentation to personally greet each and every member of the audience, and to reveal … in their own reptilian way … what it’s like to be a plodding turtle struggling to survive in an overly caffeinated, adrenalized and asphalted world. In other words, “turtle talk” straight from the cold-blooded soul of a reptile. The Turtle Journal team will be on hand to translate.

Lewis is spending the next six months as the Chief Operations Officer of the National Marine Life Center in Buzzards Bay to deliver a new marine animal hospital on the west bank of Cape Cod Canal at the gateway to the most active stranding hotspot in the Americas. The NMLC hospital will provide medical treatment and rehabilitation to stranded and injured sea turtles, seals, porpoise, dolphins and small whales. See www.nmlc.org. Lewis is the lead investigator, in partnership with Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary, in a three decade longitudinal study of Outer Cape terrapin populations. He is founding partner of Cape Cod Consultants, providing more than a decade of environmental solutions to companies and homeowners of coastal Massachusetts. Lewis can be reached by e-mail at: theturtleguy@comcast.net

Sue Wieber Nourse is a master educator and marine scientist currently on sabbatical from the Jaeger Chair for Marine Studies at Tabor Academy. Sue is a former president of Massachusetts Marine Educators, state representative of the National Association of Biology Teachers, state ambassador for the National Science Teachers Association and the first ever recipient of the Massachusetts Environment Secretary’s Award for Excellence in Ocean Education. With Dr. Neil Campbell, Nourse was a contributing author of the breakthrough biology textbook Exploring Life. She has led research studies on marine ecosystems from Maui to the Canary Islands and from the Gulf of Maine to the Virgin Islands. Nourse was one of the first women to descend to the ocean bottom in a deep sea submersible. She can be reached by e-mail at: Sue.Nourse@comcast.net.

For more information on turtles and the Turtle Journal team, visit their exciting web site at www.turtlejournal.com.

Source: http://www.wickedlocal.com/marion/news/education/x124605655/Turtle-Journal-team-to-speak-at-Mattapoisett-Land-Trust-Annual-Meeting

Turtle heaven: Environmentalists alter habitats to make them more terrapin-friendly

By Doreen Leggett

GateHouse News Service

Posted May 29, 2009

ORLEANS —

The sun shines warmly on a south-facing slope and a refreshing zephyr rustles the marsh grass of Henson’s Cove and cools those standing on an expanse of recently cleared acreage.

Bob Prescott is almost hopping from foot to foot in excitement as he animatedly talks up all the reasons why the spot would make an ideal place to raise a family.

“When you look around Orleans or any other town, you don’t have this,” he said, grinning widely.
The difference from years past is startling; a bulkhead of densely packed trees and almost impenetrable understory has been removed, revealing the soft blue beauty of the salty cove.

“When they looked up last year, they would have just seen this big green wall,” Prescott said of the view from the water. The clearing and the black anti-erosion fencing that remain on the five-acre property acts as an invitation.

“This is a big sign for terrapins, “Nest here!” said Prescott, director of Massachusetts Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary. He added with emphasis: “This is turtle heaven.”

As if on cue, three tiny harlequin striped heads pop up in the cove behind Prescott. The threatened reptiles seem to be interested in the inviting expanse of heated, silty, earth.

Diamondbacks most endangered

Prescott certainly hopes so; the diamondback terrapins in Pleasant Bay are the most endangered in the state. Without more places to nest, the speedy turtle could disappear from the area where it used to be commonplace.

The precarious status of the turtle is what attracted Seth Wilkinson, of Wilkinson Ecological Design, to the project. He is responsible for taking the site by Henson’s and a site on Cedar Cove back 70 years to a habitat that beckons the cold-blooded creatures.

“This is the last chance to save the terrapin in Pleasant Bay,” Wilkinson says.

The population, which had its heyday from the 1890s to the 1930s, was hit hard during the Great Depression when people went out “turtle-thunking,” said Prescott. Folks would take long sticks and thwack them on the marsh to find the bromating, or hibernating, turtles.

They were paid $3 a turtle for terrapins, which means good eating. (Prescott points out all the recipes called for port, not only to cook with but to serve alongside, so he questions the culinary draw.)

But danger to the protected population nowadays is the homogenization of the peninsula. Unlike in the past where there were open fields and clear views to the water, the Cape has grown up. Mature habitats, with older trees and thick undergrowth, often with invasive species, are the norm now. That’s what Wilkinson battled against on the conservation properties that have been transformed into potential terrapin meccas.

“It was unbelievable how bad it was,” said Wilkinson. “There were two native shrubs in about four acres.”

The battle wasn’t only against the landscape.

Some neighbors appealed the unanimous decision of the conservation commission. Among other concerns, they thought a few property owners were only in it for a better view. They also didn’t want the character of the place altered.

“People think it is nice woodland, but there is really nothing nice about it,” Prescott said, speaking of the invasives and lack of habitat diversity.

The idea that clear cutting was being allowed along the water, a practice that generates fines if done illegally, also raised eyebrows. But, Wilkinson explained, a number of criteria had to be met before the project was signed off.

Still, the Wetlands Protection Act wasn’t written to foster the imperative habitat restoration projects that are needed today, he added.

Wilkinson, a baseball hat pulled low on his head, is a turtle fan, but the projects are much bigger than a single species. The transformation back to an early successional habitat, think of children just starting out, helps a whole host of species that are struggling on the Cape. Wilkinson ticks a number of them off: box turtles, New England cottontails, bluebirds, swallows, field sparrows, the list goes on.

Funding saves nesting spots

It wasn’t all that long ago that Wilkinson was picking strawberries and wild asparagus in wide open fields. He was driving by one of those old haunts with his mom recently and he had to ask if that was the place he enjoyed as a kid; it was.

“Twenty-five years later … there are 45-foot black locust there,” Wilkinson said.

The open field and heath habitat regime is so needed that the state and federal government funded the bulk of both projects with $175,000 under the Landowner Incentive Program.
Neighbors, working through the Orleans Conservation Trust, which either owns or holds a conservation restriction on the properties, took care of the rest.

“Turtles were a high priority for the state,” said Prescott, who was looking at a much smaller clearing on Cedar Cove. “This is the first (project) of its kind.”

Prescott and Wilkinson, who both belong to the Trust, are optimistic about the cleared shorelines along both coves. Because of private ownership and other concerns, the two spots are among the only potential nesting spots left in the area. The two coves are also traditional terrapin hot spots and are still prime feeding areas for the charismatic reptile.

Next door to Henson’s Cove, in Lucy’s Cove, a few terrapins nest in yards and along dirt roads, not unlike the situation on Lieutenant Island in Wellfleet, where a concerted educational effort has made for a happy coexistence between terrapins and residents.

“They don’t seem to mind neighborhoods and yards,” Prescott said.

Prescott is hoping to create “turtle gardens,” or turtle-friendly places on private property, in Orleans as well. Similar efforts in Eastham have boosted terrapin nests from five to 105 in just five years.

With an eye toward the future, Prescott looks out at The River near Cedar Cove. The marsh grass will make an ideal nursing area for the hatchlings that will spend five years of their life eating under cover.

The recent burn has blackened the dirt making it as alluring as bright white sand to discerning turtle eyes.

“A turtle swimming by sees this black surface and comes up to investigate and she’ll wander a bit,” Prescott says as he walks around the site, and then he stops up short with a slight laugh.
“Here we are trying to interpret what her tiny little brain is thinking.”

Contributing writer Doreen Leggett can be reached at 508-887-3224 or capedl@hotmail.com.

Source: http://www.tauntongazette.com/

Turtle Spotting

Turtle spotting: The town of Plymouth seeking volunteers to conduct surveys of numbers and locations of the Eastern Box Turtles. Early mornings.


Call field coordinator Susan O’Neal at 508-746-7787.


Mayflower Retired & Senior Volunteer Program

TurtleZone Feature

TurtleZone.org is featured in this months Berkshire Living Magazine!

http://www.berkshirelivingmag.com/index.html