Mother Turtle

Today me, my son and grand-daughter went on the hunt for a geocache at a local park.  While searching for our "treasure"  we came across a large red-eared slider at the base of a hackberry tree.  The park we were at contains a pond which is where the turtle had originated from. 

It appeared that the turtle  had begun digging a hole.  The first thing that came to mind was that it was about to lay eggs.  With finding the geocache on our minds we went on leaving the turtle undisturbed. 

A short time later we walked passed the turtle again so my grand-daughter ran over to check on it.  The next thing I hear is the sweet voice of my grand-daughter hollering "Paw Paw.......it's laying eggs!".  Sure enough in the hole was about three eggs.  While we were watching she laid another. 

When she finally finished her motherly duties she scraped the soil and covered her future progeny.  Depending on temperature, humidity, and other factors it usually takes anywhere from 45-90 days for turtle eggs to hatch.  It would be great if we could time it just right to be able to see the baby turtles emerge from the nest.  I plan on bringing her back starting in about 6 weeks, with regular checks afterwards in hopes of being able to observe this.  Hopefully a predator such as an opossum will not discover the eggs.  What a wonderful experience for my grand-daughter to witness.

 

Beach 2012

We spent a wonderful week at the beach with family and friends with the weather cooperating nicely. As I’ve said before in previous posts (see below), beachcombing is high on my list, because you see, I have this obsessed addiction with finding shark’s teeth. At the beginning of the week the tides were not providing the needed areas for finding these, but the best day eventually came towards the end of the week when my wife’s cousin and I came across a shark tooth honey hole.

We spent an hour or so combing this spot and then returned later in the afternoon. I ended up with a total of 27 teeth, mostly small ones from an area about 20 yards long by 6 feet wide. No matter how tiny they are though, and I have found some really small ones, they go in my collection.

Once you find such a spot you must spend time with it. Don’t just look once and then move on. I will spend hours in a good area because I know that for every tooth I find, there’s five I have not yet seen. Because with every swipe of the ocean the landscape of the surf changes revealing new objects that were once hidden from view. Wearing sunglasses helps knock off the glare from the sun on the surf, but you must also have the patience of a saint. Once you get the shape, coloration, etc. tattooed in your brain they will suddenly begin to appear. And once you find that first one, the fever sets in.

Suggested Reading:

Hunting Shark’s Teeth (2007)

Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle (2008)

Mermaid’s Purse(2010)

Beach Notebook  (2011)

Back To The Beach (2011)

Barn Swallow Nest (2011)

Unintentional Suicide

I was driving down Highway 87 when I spotted a turtle squatting in the middle of the road. I check the rear-view to make sure the coast is clear and then pull over on the side of the road. (NOTE: If you decide to rescue a turtle there are a couple things to take into consideration. One, make sure you keep your hands and other body parts away from the business end and second, make sure you keep the other business end pointed away from you or you'll get drenched by a stream of turtle urine that's vigorous enough to knock the paint off a cadillac.) Remember the song “Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road”?? It could be classified as the “roadkill anthem”. I can’t say that I would run out in the middle of the road to save a skunk from the jaws of death, but I would, and I do, perform this necessary task (to me anyway) for a turtle…..and even a snake as they try and commit unintentional suicide. Heck, I even let others know about my intentions via a bumper sticker......

And I have done this countless times. Most times it’s a red-eared slider, but I have rescued box turtles and crotchety old snappers a time or two.



I even guided a large cottonmouth to the road’s edge. Lots of my friends thought I was especially nuts to do this. They thought I should’ve ran over it. Guess their thinking is a little different from mine.

Hey, they’re just trying to get to the other side of the road and I’m more apt to stop and help rather than do what most would do and splatter them on the highway. I’ve seen people literally go out of their way to convert a crossing animal, especially a snake, into road pizza.

I’ve had people say “it’s just a turtle” as if it won't make a difference. As I plunk the slider into the water-filled ditch it reminds me of the “Starfish Story” written by naturalist Loren Eiseley years ago, and I think.....it made a difference for that one.

Reptilian Speed Bump

Cruising down a winding country road I detect a small protuberance up ahead on the center stripe and immediately know what I’m seeing- a turtle about to become “street pizza”. Now if you’re like me you’re not going to just pass it by and wish it luck. I’ve saved many a turtle over the years (as well as snakes and frogs) and I wasn’t about to ignore this one. So I pulled over to the shoulder and watched horrified in my rear-view mirror as one-two-three cars sped directly over it. I put on my emergency flashers, checked both ways like my mom taught me, and hurried over to it while getting odd looks from passersby as they blast past me in the opposite lane. Most times it’s a red-eared slider (Trachemys scripta elegans) , mud (Kinosternon subrubrum), or snapping turtle (Chelydra serpentina), but this time it was a beautiful box turtle. Due to habitat loss and fragmentation these turtles (like most other animals) are slowly but surely being squeezed out and put into harm’s way. As I reached down to pick it up, legs and head disappear as it withdraws into the confines of its protective shell. This bony armor works well against predators, but it’s no match against a ton of speeding metal. With its hinged plastron (lower shell) shut as tight as a tick I walk over with it to the edge of the road so I could examine it closer. It might be good to mention here that if you come across one in this same situation always place it on the side of the road that it was headed for. If not, it will turn around and head right back into a death trap.

Noting the “keel” that ran down the center of its carapace (upper shell) and the fact that its shell was “flared” along its edges told me it was an Eastern box turtle (Terrapene carolina). This one, along with the Ornate (Terrapene ornate) box turtle, are the two native species of box turtle in Texas. The Ornate doesn’t have a keel or the flaring on its shell’s edges. Males of both species have red eyes, a long tail with a thick base, and a plastron that’s somewhat concave. Females have yellow or golden colored eyes, a shorter, thinner tail, and a flat plastron. Unable to see its eyes or tail with its shell slammed shut I had to go by the flat plastron indicating it was a female. She was probably in the process of finding a suitable area to lay her eggs since this is about that time of the year. Zoom in on the photos of both the plastron and the carapace and you’ll notice thin faded rings present on the scutes. These are “growth rings” that can be counted to approximate a turtle’s age. This one is somewhere between 12 and 14 years of old. The life span of a box turtle can reach upwards of 100 years. The hinged area near its head was damaged which could’ve resulted from being gnawed upon by some type of predator such as a coyote, fox, raccoon, skunk or even a feral dog. Still though, whatever it was, it didn’t reach the living organism inside. It is said that their shell has regenerative properties and can repair itself when damaged.

There are many people who rescue turtles, in fact there’s a website appropriately tagged “Turtle Crossings” where you can document reports, photographs and even longitude and latitude coordinates (via gps) of where the turtle crossed. Rescuing turtles requires diligence on your part, as your safety trumps that of the turtle. Not paying attention and becoming mesmerized about reaching it in time could result in you getting splattered. There’s another precaution that should be duly noted when rescuing turtles- when you pick them up be sure to direct their hind end away from yourself otherwise you’ll be surprised when you get christened by a thick jet stream of turtle urine. I’ve found this especially true with red-eared sliders. Just there way of saying “thanks”.

Sources:

http://www.enature.com/flashcard/show_flash_card.asp?recordNumber=AR0144
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Box_Turtle
http://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/animals/reptile/teca/all.html

Rose, Francis L. 1986. Carapace regeneration in Terrapene (Chelonia: Testudinidae). The Southwestern Naturalist. 31(1): 131-134. [62090]

Smith, Hobert M. 1958. Total regeneration of the carapace in a box turtle. Turtox News. 36: 234-236. [62091]