Blog Post

Soon, Very Soon . . .

See this? This is a turtle egg. This is a turtle egg with a hole. Do you know why it has a hole? Because the baby turtle is TRYING TO GET OUT! WHOO HOO! We call this “pipping,” and it means that sometime in the near future – maybe even tonight – THERE WILL BE A BABY TURTLE HATCHED IN MY LAB! 🙂 🙂 🙂

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By Wendy St. John, ago

Baby Turtle Release!

This is what I did last Friday. (Remember the articles I posted? Yeah)! We released the baby Western Pond Turtles (Emys marmorata) that were hatched in our lab last autumn, and raised at the Oakland Zoo. SO BIG! it was kind of sad to say goodbye to my babies (especially #201), but I sent all of them off with good wishes for happy, healthy lives, and to demonstrate their excellent fitness by having LOTS of babies. 😀

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By Wendy St. John, ago

ME AND MY BB!

Turtle #201, aka Neville (they asked me to give him a name when he needed to have surgery; apparently, they like to make things more personal like that at the zoo). This is just a teaser … I’ll post more photos of the baby turtle release once I get them off my camera; this photo was taken by someone else. (Haha, obviously). But yeah … ME AND MY BB! Who is now swimming happily in the lake where his mama lives. I didn’t actually cry when I released him, but I came close. <3 <3 <3

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By Wendy St. John, ago

201

So, this is my favorite turtle! He doesn’t even have a name – he’s just #201. (Well, now he’s actually #801, because of the way we number the babies, but he’ll always be 201 in my heart). He was the tiniest turtle incubated and hatched in our lab for the 2011 season: only 3.32 grams at hatching. So tiny and precious.

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By Wendy St. John, ago

July 2nd

Last day at the field site. To be honest, I’m looking forward to going home. Last night was a bit disappointing. We had four or five turtles out of the water, but no nests. Turtle 240, the double-clutch female, did attempt to nest, but she hit a rock. There was another aborted attempt right near the water, as well. Hopefully, tonight will be better. There are several females with telemetry out, so hopefully we’ll get a couple of nests. Ah well, it’s fun, anyway.
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By Wendy St. John, ago