Turtle Journal

Gopher Tortoise Surveys Vanderbilt Beach

Gopher tortoises (Gopherus polyphemus) along the Gulf Coast of Naples, Florida occupy some of the richest, most coveted terrain in the world.  Digging burrows in the shadow of towering waterfront highrises, Vanderbilt Beach tortoises live on the jagged edge of luxury and extinction.  No matter how loudly humans declare fascination with exotic wildlife, they can’t seem to tolerate neighbors that restrict unbridled development of every inch of shoreline.

Vanderbilt Beach at Sunrise

A late February morning finds Turtle Journal catching the sunrise on Vanderbilt beach in Naples as we explore Gulf Coast fauna and check out the few remaining tortoise burrows wedged precariously between luxury condo skyscrapers. 

Gopher Tortoise Competing for Ritzy Domain

Recognizing a kindred spirit, a male golpher tortoise strolls out to meet the Turtle Journal team.  Near 80-degree warmth has piqued his interest in exploring his surroundings for food and … of course … love.  As burrows are displaced by development, the challenge of finding a mate grows more difficult.  As the human urge to “control” and “neaten” natural vegetation around the burrows, foraging too becomes more difficult.

Male Gopher Tortoise

This young healthy male measured about 12 inches long …

Male Gopher Tortoise Carapace

… from nuchal at the tip of his domed carapace to the rear.  A few, maybe ten, annual growth rings can still be discerned in his costal scutes, but most annuli have been obscured by wear and tear.

Male Gopher Tortoise Plastron

The maleness of a gopher tortoise can be identified by concavity … hard to verify in the above two-dimensional photograph … in the center posterior of his plastron and by the gular protrusion at the plastron anterior under his chin.

Humans Remove “Invasive” Vegetation around Burrows

During Turtle Journal’s February 2012 inspection of Vanderbilt habitat, we noticed that people had begun to clear vegetation from around these tortoise burrows.  When asked what they were doing, workers said that they were removing “invasive” vegetation.  While we can’t and don’t dispute this claim, the clearing did seem more global than targeted against specific species.  We wonder how tortoises will fare on these largely denuded sites and hope that seasonal growth will quickly restore forage.

Tortoise Disturbed Crossing Beach “Highway”

Another challenge confronting these gentle reptiles on the Gulf Coast is the constant vehicular traffic along the luxury beachfront.  Whether “sweeping” sandy beaches clear of natural wrack each morning or simply racing up and down Vanderbilt Beach in a frentic effort to emulate Indy car drivers, humans disturb roaming tortoises with motion, noise and tire ruts.

 

Vanderbilt Beach Gopher Tortoise

Turtle Journal cherishes its visit with Florida’s gopher tortoises each winter and hopes that these humble reptiles can survive the insatiable human appetite to monopolize the Gulf Coast beach.

Female Painted Turtle Basking on Goldwitz Bog Rock

A mild winter, a southerly breeze and 60 degree temperature enticed fresh water turtles in the Great White North to emerge from brumation to kick off the 2012 Turtle Year in Coastal Massachusetts.  Yesterday, with temps creeping into the high 50s, Turtle Journal inspected “the usual haunts” where fresh water turtles on the South Coast first emerge from winter slumber.  The Goldwitz Bog in Marion is the place that painted turtles are usually first found basking in mid-March; Brainard Marsh in East Marion holds a small, shallow pond where the first spotted turtles are normally seen each year.  Yet, yesterday not a turtle was seen.

Female Painted Turtle Basking in Goldwitz Bog

This morning, however, persistence paid dividends.  The first painted turtle of 2012, a large beautiful female, had crawled onto a large rock in the retaining pond of the abandoned Goldwitz Cranberry Bog.  March 8th is the earliest date we have recorded for painted turtle emergence on the South Coast.

Spotted Turtle Snorkeling in Brainard Marsh

With the painted turtle sighting under its belt, Turtle Journal slipped across town to Brainard Marsh to check for spotted turtles.  They are normally first seen basking on the mossy bank of the shallow fresh water pond.  The bank was empty and it looked at first sight that spotteds had not yet emerged from brumation.  Standing quietly on edge of the pond, Turtle Journal’s Sue Wieber Nourse discovered two spotted turtles hiding under water and camouflaged near the bottom.

Spotted Turtle Surfaces for Air in Brainard Marsh

One curious turtle straddled a subsurface log to get a good view of Sue.  This spotted snatched a quick breath and quickly disappeared under the oozy leaf matter at the bottom of the pond.  As with painted turtles, March 8th is the earliest record of emergence that we have in our database for the South Coast.

80-Pound, Cold-Stunned Juvenile Loggerhead

A crisp December 29th arrived with fresh westerly winds driving breakers onto the bayside shore of  Cape Cod.  Wind direction suggested any cold-stunned sea turtles that might remain in Cape Cod Bay would wash up on the high tide wrack line of west facing beaches from Orleans to Truro.  The Turtle Journal team decided to patrol the sandy bayside shore from Great Island in Wellfleet to Fisher Beach in south Truro.  As Sue Wieber Nourse walked the stretch from Duck Harbor to Ryder Beach, she discovered a very large cold-stunned loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta) that had been deposited during the early morning high tide.

Sue Wieber Nourse, Rufus and Loggerhead

Easily identified by its massive neck and head that helped name this turtle after the enormous logger cleats of whaling boats, this juvenile loggerhead weighed in the range of 80 to 95 pounds.  Sue and Rufus sit beside the cold-stunned sea turtle to give a sense of perspective of its size, as we waited for a sled to drag her off the beach.

Epibiotic Community on Loggerhead Carapace

Loggerheads often arrive on Cape Cod with a dense epibiotic community of fauna and flora.  This one was no exception with large and small barnacles, as well as a dense layer of mussels.

Cold-Stunned Juvenile Kemp’s Ridley

About 50 feet to the south, a small, roughly 5 pound Kemp’s ridley (Lepidochelys kempii) had washed up higher on the wrack line.  Less than a foot long and probably about 2 years old, this turtle had traveled from the Gulf of Mexico through the Gulf Stream in Sargasso mats to end up trapped in Cape Cod Bay by dropping fall temperatures. 

Cold-Stunned ~ 2-Year-Old Kemp’s Ridley

Kemp’s ridleys, although arguably the most endangered of sea turtles, comprise the largest percentage of Cape Cod sea turtle strandings each fall, usually as high as 90%.  The second largest number of cold-stunned strandings has historically been loggerheads.  But during the last decade, green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) have seesawed with loggerheads for the dubious honor.  We suspect this situation indicates loggerheads have been doing poorly and greens have been faring a little better of late.  Americans can take the blame for the tragedy of declining loggerhead numbers because most of the nesting beaches and supporting habitat for this species lies under U.S. control.

Last 2011 Terrapin Hatchling

November 14th saw the release of the last diamondback terrapin hatchling of 2011.  What is a hatchling doing in the Great White North in mid November?  Good question!  As nests hatch out during the season, Turtle Journal often finds a few seemingly non-viable eggs lying at the bottom of the nest, looking in pretty sad condition.  They’re often sunken in and darkly discolored.  For all intents and purposes, they’re goners.  But we decided a decade ago to give these sorry-looking eggs a second chance; a last chance, really, to survive.  We place them in clean, moist sand and keep them in a warm environment.  Miraculously, we find a couple of hatchlings each year that earn that second chance at life, usually surfacing at the top of their bucket around Veterans Day or Thanksgiving or even Christmas.  Once such survivor emerged over the weekend.

Rufus Whispers “Bon Chance” to Last Hatchling

On Monday, the 14th, Turtle Journal’s Sue Wieber Nourse and Rufus brought the lucky survivor back to her natal site at Turtle Point on South Wellfleet’s Lieutenant Island.  The weather was gorgeous with sunshine and nearly 70 degree temperature.  Rufus, who celebrated her first birthday this weekend, couldn’t allow the baby turtle to escape into vegetative camouflage without whispering a few woofs of advice and giving her a gentle doggie kiss for good luck. 

Last 2011 Hatchling Scrambles to Freedom

A little hesitant at first to trade the safe, warm conditions of Turtle Journal refuge for the unpredictable wilds of freedom on Outer Cape Cod, the hatchling slowly acclimated to her new surroundings.  Within a few minutes she decided on her course of action and headed slightly upland to the bear berry (hog cranberry) vegetation of the embankment at the edge of Turtle Point.  She will burrow into the soft sand and spend her first winter in the deep slumber of brumation, waiting for the warm sunny days of May.

Second Chance at Life for Lucky Hatchling

For now this sweetheart has the title of the last diamondback terrapin hatchling of 2011.  Of course, with any luck, we hope to see that record broken by another sorry-looking egg and second chancer that will emerge while the Turtle Journal family is gathered for Thanksgiving or perhaps even Christmas dinner.