Young Herpetologist Meets Her First Terrapin Hatchling
The most sacred duty of any naturalist, especially one with thinning silver locks, involves sharing the experience of Nature and recruiting successors among the next generation to continue the critical mission of observation, documentation and conservation. While my colleagues and I employ undergraduate and graduate interns each season to “learn the trade” of field science, our special joy comes from opportunites to engage with the youngest scientists, those for whom an adventure in the wild becomes a transformational experience that may change the course of their lives and the future of our world.Â
Don Lewis and Young Herpetologists with Terrapin Hatchlings
Partnering with such exceptional conservation advocates as the Massachusetts Audubon Society, the National Marine Life Center, the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History, and Massachusetts Marine Educators (among too many others to mention in a short post), we have had the privilege to introduce children from nine months to nine decades to Nature through the unparalleled teaching model of turtles. Seemingly helpless hatchlings melt the hardest hearts. I’ve watched jaded curmudgeons with expressions so sour they could change sunshine into hail; I watched their eyes mist as they witnessed a tiny hatchling poke its head through its eggshell at the instant of birth. For children who come to the field with fewer preconceptions of the natural world, these interactions are pure joy.
Discovering a Hatchling as It Emerges from the Egg
Because turtles, and especially hatchlings, appear so accessible to children, they create an immediate and tangible link with Nature. In decades of wildlife research and education, we have never encountered a person WITHOUT a turtle story to tell. Often an octogenarian will smile the smile of a todler as her eyes beam and she tells the tale of how her dad introduced her to a baby turtle he had found in the pond behind their home.
Baby Meets Baby
We can never forget the young girl who eagerly and tenderly held a four-year-old snapping turtle at the Earth Day celebration at Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary in 2003. We wonder how she showed no fear of what this then timid turtle would become as it grew into a mighty and fearsome snapper. She simply felt the joy of touching Nature in such a personal way.
Four-Year-Old Meets Four-Year-Old Snapping Turtle
During field season, we use every opportunity to involve children in our research, especially when releasing critters back into the wild. On the beaches of the Outer Cape, the setting is perfect for youngsters to meet turtles in a completely natural venue and to learn about them in ways that books simply can never convey.
Turtles Create Transformational Moments
A message from today’s post? Take every opportunity to introduce children to Nature and show them critters in their natural habitat. The rewards of the moment will be enormous as you see pure, honest joy burst across their faces. But this singular experience will pay dividends for a lifetime as memories form touchstones that will shape the course of their lives and the future of our world. Bring your family into Nature and see what futures you, too, can create.
Hatchlings Released into Nursery Salt Marsh off Turtle Point
Raw, blustery September has gripped terrapin nesting sites on the Outer Cape. As temperatures plunge, hatchlings hunker down in their underground hide-aways, snoozing in the warm darkness, hoping and waiting for a sunny respite to heat up the sand and their bodies for the sprint from nest to safety in the abutting nursery habitat.
Temperatures Begin to Plunge Below 55F Activity Threshold
Yet, while they wait with quiet patience, predators act. Mammals and insects sniff the odor of organic material issuing from the pipped eggshells. These predators take advantage of the hatchlings’ stupor to snatch an easy meal.
Lethargic Hatchling and Potentially Viable Egg
Nest 996 fell victim to secretive plant and insect predators. As we excavated the nest in the morning chill, we encountered egg after egg that had been attacked by roots, stilting embryo development and piercing the shell. Once the egg is cracked, insects stream in and consume the organic material. Near the bottom of the nest, we found a seemingly lifeless hatchling wrapped in an eggshell that we would have instantly discarded as non-viable. Peeling the shell away, we found a healthy, if motionless hatchling. And at the bottom of the nest, we removed one potentially viable egg that has been carefully transplanted to the “second chance” bucket where eggs go to finish incubation and hopefully achieve their full potential.
Excavating Six Sluggish Hatchlings
A few feet away we discovered a concavity in the sand that indicated that a pipped nest might lie beneath. About four inches under the surface we found a half dozen hatchlings, some pipped but still inside eggshells, but others just snoozing the chill away. Check out these sluggish babies once they are excavated as they lie about like cordwood, waiting for sunshine to warm their bodies before dashing to freedom.
September weather in the Great White North can be cruel for tiny hatchlings. But a saving hand can make a world of difference for this threatened species by dramatically increasing the number of live hatchlings that enter the ecosystem each year.
As we described earlier in the post, “Rescuing Live Hatchlings from Maggot Infested Nests,” fly maggots devastate threatened diamondback terrapin nests on the Outer Cape. They devour tiny, vulnerable hatchlings as they break their eggshells in the secret darkness of their hidden underground nests. When we encounter a nest infested with maggots, and after we suppress our disgust and repulsion, we aggressively excavate the egg chamber in order to save as many hatchlings as we can.
Terrapin Egg Completely Consumed by Fly Maggots
This Thursday we checked on a nest laid late last June in a new turtle garden off Broadmarsh River in Wareham, 60 miles from nests on the Outer Cape and on the other side of the Cape Cod Canal. Still, once we penetrated the egg chamber the sand resembled an Indiana Jones movie scene with maggots playing the role of snakes. “Maggots,” exclaims the Turtle Guy. “Why does it have to be maggots?”
Maggots in Motion
We ignore the stench and dig quickly through the slithering sand to rescue eight live hatchlings among the devoured remains of eggs and embryos of seven might-have-been siblings.Â
Eight Saved, Seven Depredated by Maggots
The rescued hatchlings appeared lethargic as though traumatized by the experience. But after an overnight stay in clean, moist soil, and a leisurely bath in warm fresh water, they were eager for release into the wild. That is, turtle eager which isn’t quite the same thing as mammal eager.
Hatchling Strolls through Wareham Turtle Garden
The background of the previous video clip shows the exquisite nesting habitat that was created by private homeowners abutting the nursery salt marsh of Wareham’s Broadmarsh River off Buzzards Bay. At their own initiative and their own expense, the homeowners petitioned the Town of Wareham Conservation Commission for permission to create a perfect nesting habitat along a beach front that had become sand starved over the years and had lost all upland nesting potential. These generous homeowners ordered 20 tons of perfectly matched beach sand to make a large nesting site at least 10 inches deep for terrapins to place their clutches. Within a couple of weeks of completing this turtle garden, the first female terrapin had scratched and dug her nest. In total, six nests were deposited in the new sandy turtle garden … all of which were protected by predator excluders. As these new babies mature, they too will return to this turtle garden, ensuring a whole new generation of diamondback terrapins in Broadmarsh River; all thanks to an exceptional family who are dedicated to restoring the Wareham coastal ecosystem for future generations.
One surprise we discovered over the last few years is that diamondback terrapin hatchlings employ a variety of strategies to survive their most vulnerable first year. We had all expected that like sea turtles, terrapin hatchlings scramble from their nests in a beeline for the safety of the thick, rich, robust nursery salt marsh habitat ringing Wellfleet’s most productive nesting sites. The first indications that we may have been hasty in this assumption were hatchlings we found in May and June each year heading DOWN HILL from the uplands toward the salt marsh. The first few observations were dismissed as late emerging hatchlings that had overwintered in their natal nests since we had documented a few nests in May and June that had hatched in the fall, but where some hatchlings had remained until the next spring.  However, once we spotted yearlings heading down slope from the uplands to the marsh this rationalization collapsed.
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Dr. Barbara Brennessel of Wheaton College conducted experiments tracking headstarted hatchlings released in their natal habitat in the Wellfleet Bay system. They were equipped with a transmitter for RDF (radio direction finding) tracking. Although much larger than a normal hatchling due to overwinter feeding, a number of these turtles headed into the salt marsh, behaving precisely as we would have expected a baby terrapin to act. They hid out in the thick Spartina patens, feeding on whatever small critters they could discover in this rich marsh system. However, some number of these headstarts went upland into the vegetated banks abutting sandy nesting areas and the salt marsh. Since these animals were not “pristine” hatchlings, we asterisked their “aberrant behavior.”
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But once we began to track baby hatchlings emerging from natural nests on treks upland, we realized that putting all the data together, many hatchlings race into the robust Spartina patens of the Wellfleet salt marsh system, lots of hatchlings dash under the rimming wrack line between sandy nesting banks and the salt marsh, and still others scale the banks and dunes to explore the vegetative uplands above the most productive nesting sites. These terrapins employ a richer, more complex strategy that offers multiple opportunities for survival of hatchlings in a very raw and unpredictable climate at the northernmost edge of their range.
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This week we watched the emergence of a nest at Turtle Point. Ten live hatchlings left the nest and we followed them with a long-distance telephoto lens to determine how this group might behave once they had tunneled out of the nest. You may recall earlier reporting of tracking hatchlings into the wrack line and others into the Spartina patens (see Tracking Terrapin Hatchlings, http://www.turtlejournal.com/?p=225)
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The first hatchling set out on a solo trek and headed immediately into the vegetation above the nesting bank.
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Solo Hatchlings Climbs into Upland Vegetation
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Three others seemed to wait for this scout to complete its scramble, and then they too scaled the bank to disappear into upland vegetation.Â
Three More Hatchlings Scramble Upslope
The last batch of six hatchlings followed suit, with the final two in this pair offering quite a tag team performance.
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Final Six Head Upland, Too
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Finally, once they had fully dispersed into the uplands, we attempted to find them again. Truth be told, even though we had followed their movements in detail with a long distance telephoto lens, we could only locate four of the ten hatchlings because they were so well camouflaged within the groundcover vegetation.
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Hatchlings Camouflaged in Upland Bearberry Vegetation
Due to human development and associated pressures, some of the best remaining nesting sites for diamondback terrapins on the Outer Cape are one-lane dirt roads that abut salt marsh nursery ecosystems for hatchlings. Obviously, roadways are extremely dangerous for the female as she spends more than 30 minutes digging her nest, depositing her eggs and covering it once again. Because these compacted roadways are so hard, and her nest sculpting creates a natural arch to spread the load of vehicular traffic, the eggs appear to do fine through June, July and August as they incubate under the summer sun.
Female Terrapin Nesting in Middle of Dirt Road
But when hatchlings begin to pip and squirm about in the nest, and when one or more begins to tunnel to the surface leaving an emergence hole in the road, then the architectural integrity that served so well during incubation is compromised. Weight no longer is evenly distributed, and the egg chamber compresses and begins to collapse under the stress.Â
Emergence Hole in Middle of Marsh Road on Lieutenant Island
I discovered this little (3 gram) hatchling wedged under the lip of the nest that had been collapsing under the day’s traffic. Two of its siblings had already been crushed in the center of the egg chamber.
Premie Hatchling Distorted by Road Traffic
In addition to problems with its distorted shape, its eggshell had been invaded by fly maggots that were trying to find a vulnerable orifice to invade. I had to hand-pick these nasty predators from the tiny hatchling. Based on experience, I know that this critter will now do quite well. With a little time, some warm hydration and a bit of TLC, its shell will resume a normal shape and it should be ready to be released into the wild within a few days to a week.
Emerged Terrapin Hatchling Run Over on Marsh Road
I wish the same could be said for another sibling (above) that I found a foot outside the nest and squished in the south tire track of the dirt road. It’s a dangerous world for a turtle hatchling. Few survive to tell the tale of their harrowing youth. But with a little luck and a guardian angel or two, one turtle at a time can be saved and the whole world along with it.
