WE HAVE A BABY!!!!!!! Just one so far … but this is only the beginning.
We Have a Baby!
Category: Western Pond Turtles
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! 🙂 🙂 🙂
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. 😀
(Plus, being able to wade out into the pond is kind of the most fun thing we do all year. The water level was low this year, though. Last year, the water was up to my armpits).
Ready to go “home”
Walking through the tules
Lauren Greenwood
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201
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Bye-bye 201!
I love you!
Bay Area Zoos & Sonoma State University to Release Western Pond Turtles
So … this is what I did today. 😀 (I’m one of the SSU herpetologists). The link goes to a National Geographic article about the project we’re doing in collaboration with the Oakland and San Francisco zoos.
By Jordan Carlton Schaul of University of Alaska; Grizzly People on August 17, 2012
National Geographic Archives
Read the entire article here: http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/2012/08/17/bay-area-zoos-sonoma-state-university-to-release-western-pond-turtles/
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
7th World Congress of Herpetology
Here is the poster I presented at the 7th World Congress of Herpetology in Vancouver, British Columbia, August 8 – 14, 2012.
Oakland Zoo to Release Turtles to Wild
An article featuring our lab’s work with Western Pond Turtles.
Photo: Stephen Lam, Special To The Chronicle
Read the entire article here: http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/Oakland-Zoo-to-release-turtles-to-wild-3777354.php#photo-3309244
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.
He’s nine months old now, and for the first time ever I can actually refer to him by his correct sex. (Most of the baby turtles are female, so I always call them all “she” until proven otherwise). But 201 turned out to be A BOY! Hahaha! I’ve just realized I can even post a picture of his internal boy parts; that’s the very last photo – taken through the endoscope of his gonads. (I hope he won’t be embarrassed by that). Here’s a time series to see how he grew over the past nine months:
Hatching Day:
Two months old:
Four months old:
Seven months old:
Nine months old (SO BIG):
Input S-Video
The only sad thing? Since he’s a boy, after we release him next month (back into the lake where his mother lives), I will almost certainly never see him EVER AGAIN, because we only see the females when they come out to nest. Males stay in the pond pretty much all the time. OH BABY OF MY HEART, HOW I WILL MISS YOU! And no, I’m not crying about it. Not now. Although I probably will cry on release day. Don’t worry, there will be pictures of that, too. (Well, of the release. Maybe not of me crying).
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.
Oh, and I felt a small earthquake two nights ago, centered around 4 miles from here. I felt an earthquake up here last year, as well. I wonder if that means they have them more frequently here than back at home? In any case, it was pretty cool.
Now, sitting in the rec room, trying to stay cool. Still three hours before we go to the field site. Maybe I’ll try to take a nap. Or read another story. I’ve done a good job journaling up here. Let’s see how well I am able to keep it up once I get home tomorrow.
My Field Season Has Begun
Female western pond turtles (Emys marmorata): their nesting season has begun at my field site in Lake County, Calfornia. The turtle in the first photo (#222, a recapture we first encountered in 2010) nested on June 6th – and yes, that photo was taken while she was in the process of laying her eggs. And the gorgeous girl in the other photos (#225, also first captured in 2010) nested on June 7th. The turtles seem to be coming out in greater numbers about a week earlier than they did last year.
The lab at my university has been studying this population of turtles for five years now (this is my third year on the project). We’re looking at nesting behavior, including the ways in which they use the habitat – distance from tree line, or distance from the pond, and whether or not the females return to the same spot year after year to nest. We’re also looking at temperature profiles inside of the nests, because these turtles have Temperature-dependent Sex Determination (TSD), which means that sex is determined by the temperature at which the eggs incubate, rather than genetically. (Higher temperatures produce females; lower temperatures produce males, in this particular species).