I was able to bid farewell to some of our juvenile turtles today when they were released into the newly-restored Mountain Lake in the Presidio of San Francisco. This is one of the later phases of the project – reintroducing native species that were extirpated after the lake was severely degraded by a variety of human impacts. It’s nice to see these turtles back in an areas where they previously thrived.
Originally posted on the San Francisco Bay Area National Parks Science and Learning Blog
Although no one knows exactly when western pond turtles vanished from Mountain Lake in the Presidio of San Francisco, they are known to have been abundant historically. Now, as part of the ongoing restoration of Mountain Lake, this long-extirpated species is back. On July 18th, 28 western pond turtles reared by the San Francisco Zoo were released into the lake before an audience of more than 70 people. The release follows similar releases of other native species including Pacific chorus frogs and three-spined sticklebacks earlier in the year.
The western pond turtle release is also part of a research effort to determine which of two different release methods is better for the turtles in terms of their stress hormone levels. Half of turtles were brought to Mountain Lake and kept in a protected enclosure for three weeks to acclimate ahead of their release, while the rest were released without an acclimation period. All had their stress hormone levels measured upon their release and are equipped with radio transmitters so they can be relocated and have their hormone levels re-measured in the coming weeks and years. The preliminary results will inform another round of western pond turtle releases at Mountain Lake on September 12th and contribute to knowledge about native species reestablishment efforts in general. Future reestablishment projects at Mountain Lake may include the Pacific newt and the California red-legged frog.
Check out the SF Gate article or the Bay Nature article for additional coverage of the recent western pond turtle release.
Here I am, in my OFFICE, on the first day of the semester. SUPER EXCITED!
For the first time (ever?), I have my very own office!
Here is a collection of links to articles I’ve written about western pond turtles.
This “Western Pond Turtle” category menu also includes a variety of content published by other people, most of which involves turtles from my lab. Just continue scrolling down through this category page to see articles, images, and videos I’ve shared from other sources.
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The stats program I’m working with right now just gave me this message:
Releasing some of our headstarted turtles back to their natal site. SO PRECIOUS!!!
We did a super cool lab this week – and a relatively photogenic one, at that – so I thought I’d post a few photos! We had a bunch of live specimens (mostly marine inverts from Bodega Bay), and we did our first dissection of the semester – a squid. SUPER COOL!
Here’s a planaria, a type of flatworm (phylum Platyhelminthes). SO CUTE!
The “Ticket to Success” program is designed to bring elementary and middle school children onto campus, to given them a fun introduction to higher education. I put together a display for the Biology Department, with bunches of interesting specimens from our museum collection.
