Turtle Journal

Premature Diamondback Terrapin Hatchling

Topping off the worst summer season in more than a decade on Cape Cod, Tropical Storm Danny unloaded a deluge of rain on Saturday.  Turtle nesting was delayed ten days in spring and hatchling emergence has been retarded by at least two weeks due to cool temperatures and stormy weather throughout the season.  Sunday proved no different, with cool temperatures punctuated by more rain and dense fog.  With a hundred nests under our observation, not a single one hatched in August.  In normal years, hatching begins in mid-August and would have reached a furious pace by the end of the month.

 Depredated Nest on Field Point in South Wellfleet

Predators have been as impatient as researchers about delayed emergence.  Dozens of nests have been dug up and eggs consumed.  Lieutenant Island’s Turtle Point looks like a war zone with “foxholes” dotting path and dunes.  Predators have even tunneled beneath excluder cages to reach protected nests.

On Sunday, we spotted a number of depredated nests at the eastern tip of Field Point off Blackfish Creek.  Our protocol demands a physical inspection of every depredated nests in order to collect research data about the number of eggs and so forth, but more importantly to determine whether any viable eggs might have been misssed by the hungry scavenger.  Sometimes an egg remains at the bottom of the nest when the predator becomes distracted by the frenzy of devouring the top layer of eggs.  It doesn’t occur often, perhaps once in every 25 depredated nests, but any hatchling rescued proves our motto of saving the world one turtle at a time.

 Egg Left at Bottom of Depredated Nest on Field Point

When I excavated this depredated nest, I felt an egg buried under a shallow covering of sand beneath the carnage.  The shell had been nicked by the predator’s claws as it dug out the other eggs.  I got excited when the heft of the egg told me that it might contain a potentially viable hatchling.  I peeled back the nicked shell flap to look inside.

Tiny Fly Larva inside Terrapin Egg

Good news and bad.  Lifting the flap I saw the carapace (top shell of the hatchling) and it appeared viable.  But then a tiny fly larva crawled across the shell and into my view. 

Flies are attracted by the odor of organic material that emanates from depredated nests and from hatching nests that have begun to pip.  Mature flies deposit eggs atop these nests. Fly larvae consume organic remnants of the depredation.  They also enter pipped eggs and devour hatchlings before they emerge.  In this case maggots had entered through the nicked shell and were feasting on the hatchling’s pierced membrane before they would move on to consuming her yolk sac and then the hatchling herself. 

Saving this animal would require immediate and aggressive action.

 

Rescuing Besieged Premature Hatchling

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Maggots had to be removed quickly before they wreaked irreversible damage.  We gently removed the shell to reach the fly larvae.  We bathed the premature hatchling in sterile water to flush the maggots.  Similarly we cleansed the shell itself.  With maggots eliminated, we re-inserted the premature hatchling back into its egg.  We placed the hatchling, now back inside her eggshell, on a blanket of moist paper towels to maintain her hydration, and we covered her with a slightly moist paper towel.

Premature Terrapin Hatchling with Enormous Yolk Sac

While still alive and viable, this hatchling needs to absorb her huge yolk sac before she’s out of danger.  Still, her odds of survival have increased from zero to possible.  Right now she’s resting comfortably in our sun room as the day is bathed in bright September sunshine.

This rescued preemie is not what we expected for the First Hatchling of the 2009 season, but if she makes it, she’ll arguably be the luckiest hatchling that ever emerged from South Wellfleet.  She first dodged certain death at the claws and teeth of a large mammalian predator, and then she was rescued from an army of tiny, insatiable, yet equally lethal predator larvae.  In fact, while we rarely name wild animals under our care, we’ve got to give this one the moniker “Lucky.”

Bon chance, Lucky!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 1st, 2009 at 9:59 am and is filed under Turtles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.