(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).
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/
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
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
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:
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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).
