Why turtles travel in nesting season

By Ruth Smith, Special to Berkshires Week

A female painted turtle was the focus of much curiosity and exploration among a group of preschoolers that I spent time with recently. She had climbed out of a river, crawled through the shoreline buffer of silver maples and clambered across a lawn in search of a sunny spot to lay her eggs.

This is a vulnerable time for turtles, as they leave the rivers and ponds where they spend most of their life, following an irresistible urge to produce the next generation of their kind. But it is also the time when we have the best chance for a close encounter with this common but normally skittish reptile.

The children had many questions and declarations during their close encounter.

"It's a snapper!" one boy exclaimed.
I explained that it was opening its mouth in attempts to startle us, but that the red and yellow stripes on its face, plus its smooth shell and small size, made it a harmless painted turtle.

One of the girls asked, "Why is he here?"

I answered that "he" was probably a "she" and showed them how to determine the gender of a turtle.

Often the plastron (lower shell) of the female is flatter than the male's. However, an unmistakable sign is that the male has long front claws used for clinging to the female's shell during mating. His tail is also thicker and longer, with the anal opening beyond the rear margin of the shell. The opening on the female's thin, short tail is under the edge of the shell.

I also suspected the turtle was a female because she was on land. From May through July, females may travel up to a half a mile from the water to find a suitable place to dig her nest and deposit five to 10 eggs. These eggs are oblong, about 1.5 inches long by 0.75 inches wide. The leathery shell is white or may have a yellow tint.

The eggs will be warmed by the sun throughout the summer. The temperature of the nest influences the sex of the hatchlings. Females are formed if the temperature is very high or low, and males develop when the temperature is more moderate. Because the eggs at the bottom of the nest may be a different temperature than those at the top, a single nest can produce both male and female young. The young may emerge in mid-August to late September, but some may overwinter in the nest and come out the following May.
Turtle nests are nearly impossible to see, because the female covers them so the ground looks as though she was never there. Predators such as skunks, raccoons and foxes use their sense of smell to find the nests though and frequently dig up and consume the eggs within 48 hours. It is estimated that 50 to 90 percent of nests are destroyed this way.

Egg predation is only one of the challenges that turtles face. During their journey on land the adults are also vulnerable to predators. Their webbed feet make them adept at swimming but awkward out of the water. Because ideal nest characteristics include loose, sandy soil in a sunny spot, females often pick sites along roadsides, gravel banks, or other disturbed areas where human activity occurs. This is the time of year when turtles are seen along the road or even crossing a street. Unfortunately, many of them don't survive these migrations, as they are hit by cars.

The most interesting question that the children asked about our visitor was, "What should we do with her?"

They clearly wanted to help. I explained that the best way to help turtles (or other wild animals) is to put them back where they are found. She was on a mission and needed to complete her task. The only exception is a turtle in the middle of the road, when she can safely be moved in the same direction she was traveling.

The best way we all can help turtles is to be observant and slow down when driving to avoid hitting them. With our caution and respect and a lot of luck, these creatures can live to be more than 30 years old. Good luck to those mommas on a mission!


What: 'Up close with snakes and turtles' -- search for reptiles with naturalist Réné Wendell

Where: Bartholomew's Cobble, Wheatogue Road, Sheffield

When: July 7, 10 a.m.

Admission: $4, or a family for $15

Information: (413) 229-8600, www.thetrustees.org



Source: Berkshire Eagle

Volunteers needed for turtle-spotting program

By Michael Morton/Daily News staff
MetroWest Daily News
Posted Jun 10, 2012 @ 11:57 PM



It’s no secret — turtles are slow, and when they sense danger they stop in their tracks and retreat into their shells.

So with the region’s busy roads slicing up their wetland homes, they can once again use a little help this egg-laying season — like that afforded by the annual Turtle Roadway Mortality Monitoring Program and volunteers like retired Wayland teacher Emily Norton.

“The roads end up being killing fields for them,” Norton said of the female turtles, which leave the wetlands and cross roads to find soft, sunny, dig-able spots in which to lay eggs.

Four years ago, the state’s Division of Fisheries and Wildlife and Department of Transportation teamed up to save wildlife and boost human safety by reducing collisions with cars — the Linking Landscapes for Massachusetts Wildlife program.

The initiative asks residents to report wildlife sightings though an online database so they can be pinpointed on Google Maps, with a particular ecological focus on turtles.

So far, program staff have trained 100 turtle spotting volunteers in species and habitat identification, as well as safety tips — like always face traffic when out working.

Each volunteer is given an orange hard hat and a reflective safety vest and adopts a short section of road identified as high-risk because of its proximity to wetlands, especially causeways with wetlands on both sides.

Volunteers go out for surveys three times, once in May and twice in June. They are asked to log the species, gender and estimated age of both living and dead turtles. Fatalities are particularly important, but, fortunately, not always spotted despite projections.

“I think people get more disappointed when they don’t find anything,” program co-Director and biologist David Paulson said from fish and wildlife’s Westborough headquarters. “I tell them a negative result isn’t necessarily a bad thing.”

But Norton, who taught science and lives in Townsend, remembers dreading the drive to work along Rte. 27 in Wayland, knowing that near the Sudbury town line she would spot turtle casualties in the warmer months.

“I don’t know how many times I stopped traffic to get turtles across the road,” she said.

It was one of her posts for the study, and she would cart injured turtles to Tufts’ veterinary school in North Grafton, where they would usually die.

After securing two grants, a donation and a small army of volunteers, her team strung up wire mesh under an existing guardrail, with one-way doors in case animals still found a way onto the road. Mortalities soon dropped.

For the larger study, a stretch of Rte. 119 in Littleton was quickly identified as a hotspot, representing about 100 of the 303 fatalities identified in 2009, the most recent program report available.

But a new fence soon saw that number drop to a handful, Paulson said. Options elsewhere could include installing “wildlife crossing” signs, enlarging culverts or using barriers to funnel wildlife into existing passageways under roads.

Other spots in Sudbury have been studied, but came up clear, at least in 2009.







(Michael Morton can be reached at 508-626-4338 or mmorton@wickedlocal.com.)


Source: The Milford Daily News

New England Aquarium staff en route to Virginia release 17 endangered sea turtles

By Amanda Cedrone, Globe Correspondent

After several months of rehabilitation at the New England Aquarium, 17 endangered sea turtles were released Sunday evening off the coast of Virginia, officials said.

The turtles were rescued off of Cape Cod where they were discovered in the fall suffering from hypothermia, according to a statement from the New England Aquarium.

Staff from the New England Aquarium left Quincy -- where the aquarium’s animal care center is located -- early Sunday morning to transport the turtles to Virginia. They were released at about 8:30 p.m. near the southern tip of the Delmarva Peninsula with help from staff at the Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center, the statement said.

The turtles were placed “in the sand just above the surf where the smell of the open ocean will fill their nostrils, and their flippers will hastily propel them into the water and a return to their home,” the statement said.

Along the Massachusetts coast, the warmest waters are approximately 60 degrees, which is too cold for the creatures, officials said. The water off of Virginia ranges in temperature from the low to mid-70s.

The group of turtles includes 15 Kemp’s ridley sea turtles, and two loggerhead sea turtles, the statement said. Kemp’s ridley turtles are the world’s most endangered sea turtle and the smallest, officials said.

The largest of the 17 turtles is an 80-pound loggerhead turtle named Juggernaut who was rescued by staff and volunteers of the Mass Audubon Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary weighing much less.

The turtle was suffering from hypothermia, dehydration, malnutrition, as well as a fracture on the lower shell surrounding its rear flippers, the statement said.

To ensure that the turtle gains the strength and mobility necessary in its rear flipper to catch food and escape predators, its caretakers rearranged the in-flow water pipes in its tank, forcing Juggernaut to use the flipper more regularly.

Juggernaut’s rehabilitation took six months to complete.

“Nothing happens quickly with a turtle,” said Connie Merigo, head of the aquarium’s rescue team, in the statement.

Adult loggerhead turtles weigh about 250 pounds, and can grow to about 3 feet, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration website. They are reddish-brown, with a slightly heart-shaped top shell.

Kemp’s ridley turtles weigh about 100 pounds at adulthood, and can grow to be about 24 to 28 inches in length, the website said. They are grayish-green, with a somewhat circular top shell.

Amanda Cedrone can be reached at acedrone@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @ancedrone.




Source: Boston.com

State wildlife officials to release more than 100 endangered turtles

HANSON, Mass — State wildlife officials are planning to release more than 100 endangered turtles that have been raised in a program that tries to help them survive past the early months of their lives.

Division of Fisheries and Wildlife officials will release the Northern Red-bellied Cooter hatchlings on Tuesday at Burrage Pond Wildlife Management Area in Hanson.

The endangered hatchlings were removed from the wild last fall. Then, as part of a program called "Headstarting," they were paired with various educational and scientific facilities, which raised them in warm environments with unlimited food.

That allows the turtles to grow faster, making them less vulnerable to predators when they're released.

The turtle can grow to 10 pounds and a foot in length. In Massachusetts, they're found only in ponds in Plymouth County.





Source:  The Republic

World Turtle Day 2012 Is Coming!

World Turtle Day, sponsored every year since 2000 by American Tortoise Rescue, was established to bring attention to, and increase knowledge of and respect for, turtles and tortoises. Turtle Day is celebrated worldwide in a variety of ways, including dressing up as turtles, assisting turtles crossing roadways (when conditions are safe), and taking part in research activities (such as citizen science volunteer programs).

Box Turtles and the Endangered Species Act

The box turtle's domed carapace is hinged at either end allowing it to box in its head and tail safe from marauding claws. This adaptation and its brown and tawny camouflage have served it well, individuals often living 80 years or more. Then we came with our roads and vehicles crisscrossing its habitat so fast we rarely notice its spring mate-searching or egg-laying journeys. Terrestrial by nature, it will cross roads more often than a painted turtle which finds its mate in the water and swims, feeds, and basks there all summer. Most box turtles spend their days feeding on plant and animal life within 2 to 8 acres of woods or fields returning to a bedding place every night, burrowing into the leaf litter come winter; a few wander long distances.

Usually in May or June, as long as four years after mating, the female (her underside is flat, his slightly concave) travels, as much as a mile, to open sandy ground to dig a hole for her eggs, usually four to six. These will hatch in two to three months. The hatchlings head out in search of food, such as beetles and caterpillars; as they grow older adding plants and mushrooms.

Hungry foxes, coyotes, skunks or raccoons devour many of the eggs. They too must eat, but we have tipped the balance, our suburban landscape and garbage encouraging skunks and raccoons to proliferate and allowing coyotes to be added to the mix.

About 10 years ago a long-time Lakevillian reported to the Planning Board that he had once spotted 30 box turtles on the acreage of a proposed development. A few months later the bulldozers began. I visited and found a box turtle on a pile of dirt, an intersection to be. I moved him, but turtles always resume their intended journeys so who knows where he went. Hopefully, if he survived construction and traffic, he is not trapped in a box in someone's kitchen, cursed by his physical charm.

Must every tract of open land that gets developed bring box turtles closer to disappearing from Lakeville where once they were plentiful? To the delight of some, dismay of others, our legislature passed the Massachusetts Endangered Species Act (MESA) in 1990 hoping we might share land with its older inhabitants. As with most laws, the process of establishing and administering regulations is complicated and sometimes contentious. Someone must determine which creatures are dangerously declining. (Box turtles have been classified as a "species of special concern.") Next, the areas where the creature still lives must be determined. Then, based on biologists' searches and citizens' reported sightings, the Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program draws polygons on regulatory maps indicating the creature's habitat. Periodically these maps are revised with new information. If someone wants to construct a significant project within one of these polygons, his plans must be sent to NHESP where biologists will puzzle out if the project will be detrimental to the protected creature. If so, they will work with the applicant to figure out how the project and the creature can coexist.

Such regulations seem onerous in the context of property rights, but water and wildlife do not accept our boundaries. We can be proud to live in a state where we are keeping this in mind.

For more information on turtles, MESA, and how to report a box turtle sighting see:

http://www.mass.gov/dfwele/dfw/nhesp/species_info/nhfacts/terrapene_carolina.pdf

http://www.massaudubon.org/printwildlife.php?id=61


Year of the Turtle, David Caroll



Source:  http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120510/PUB04/205100381

Turtle Roadway Mortality Monitoring Program

Citizen Scientists Needed To Monitor Turtle Crossings

Turtles have existed for millions of years, but roadways are threatening the survival of local populations.  Turtles in Massachusetts often cross roadways late spring to early fall and are vulnerable to car collisions.  Ambitious citizen scientists, turtle enthusiasts, and conservation organizations are encouraged to join state wildlife and transportation personnel in collecting data for the Turtle Roadway Mortality Monitoring Program.  Linking Landscapes for Massachusetts Wildlife, a recent partnership between the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife (DFW), Department of Transportation (DOT) Highway Division and UMass-Amherst, trained volunteers to collect data in 2010 and is expanding its volunteer program by offering two citizen scientist information and training sessions in Amherst and Westborough. These sessions are designed to train new volunteers, acknowledge current volunteer efforts, and share results from the first year of data collection. The information gathered through this volunteer effort will be used to coordinate local turtle conservation efforts.

The information and training session will be held on Wednesday, May 16^th, 2012 at the United Methodist Church, 6 Holmes Road in Lenox starting at 6:30 pm.  The event will be cosponsored by Berkshire Environmental Action Team (BEAT) and Project Native.  The sessions are free, but pre-registration is required.  Interested volunteers can register with Dave Paulson at David.Paulson@state.ma.us or call him at (508) 389-6366.

Light refreshments will be provided.

For additional information please contact:

David Paulson, Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program, MassWildlife
David.Paulson@state.ma.us              508-389-6366

Tim Dexter, Environmental Services Unit, MassDOT Highway Division
Timothy.Dexter@state.ma.us            617-973-8306