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Posts Tagged ‘northern diamondback terrapin’

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7 years of survival (and counting)

Monday, August 13th, 2012

A glimpse into the life of one adult female terrapin

By Stephanie Egger, Wildlife Biologist

Stephanie Egger prepares to insert a PIT tag into a terrapin in 2004.

Over the summers of 2004 and 2005, as part of my graduate research for Saint Joseph’s University and in partnership with Rutgers University Marine Field Station, I tagged 300 adult female northern diamondback terrapins to gain a better understanding of their nesting movements, nesting events, and road mortality on Great Bay Boulevard in Tuckerton, New Jersey.  These terrapins were tagged with PIT tags (Passive Integrated Transponder tags) which are the size of a grain of rice and inserted directly under the skin.  The PIT tags are individually numbered and can be read with a hand-held scanner in the field for essentially the life of the terrapin.  Some terrapins were nesting more than once per season and generally within 50 meters from their original tagged location, but a few were found great distances (1000 meters) from their initial location (See Szerlag-Egger and McRobert 2007).

Ben Wurst, our Habitat Program Manager, and Kristin Ryerson, a CWFNJ intern, were able to scan some terrapins this summer as part of the Great Bay Terrapin Project and came across one of the terrapins I tagged in 2005!  She has survived 7 years (and counting) on Great Bay Boulevard from becoming road kill on a road where 50 terrapins can be killed in a nesting season (See Szerlag and McRobert 2006).  The distance between her location in 2005 and 2012 was 826 meters!  It appears that she may have emerged from the creek and decided to travel north to nest instead of south (see Google Earth image below).  I am hopeful we can continue to monitor the terrapins on Great Bay Boulevard and collect further information on tagged terrapins as it may have management implications for the future.

An adult female terrapin who was PIT tagged in 2005 on Great Bay Boulevard and later recaptured in 2012.

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Terrapin nesting season begins

Wednesday, June 6th, 2012
Be Terrapin Aware this summer!

by Ben Wurst, Habitat Program Manager

Last Thursday there was a flurry of activity throughout coastal New Jersey. It was one of the peak days of the beginning of the northern diamondback terrapin nesting season. I had scheduled myself to be off to work on projects around my house but ended up working for half the day on our Great Bay Terrapin Conservation Project. Female terrapins were everywhere! They were crossing all over Great Bay Blvd., a 5 mile long road that bisects pristine terrapin habitat. The shoulders of the road are suitable nesting habitat as well, so at times as many as 10-15 terrapins could be seen in one small section of the road. There were so many that one terrapin bumped right into another one on the shoulder of the road!! They were digging nests and laying eggs all over the place. It was certainly a rare sight. Luckily traffic was mild and  the weather was clear so there were little road kills. One female fell victim to a Little Egg Harbor Twp. mower who was mowing the edges of the road. This certainly wasn’t the best day to mow the shoulders! Before more terrapins could be killed we contacted LEHT public works and they called off their mower until further notice. On a side note, we have asked the township and the environmental commission to adopt a delayed mowed regime in the past and unfortunately one terrapin died because of this. I even emailed the public works director early last week about nesting activity picking up and I asked for him to please let me know when they were planning to mow so we could have someone walk in front of the mower to be sure no terrapins were hit. On the positive side, we were able to salvage 7 eggs from the terrapin, and they were successfully placed in a hatchery in Loveladies on LBI. We have our fingers crossed that they’ll hatch later this summer!

Finally, we have had more of a presence on Great Bay Blvd this year with the assistance of our new intern, Kristin Ryerson. She is collecting data (size, age, weight, and other data) on terrapins that she encounters while conducting road patrols on Great Bay Blvd. We’ll be using this data to compare it to some collected in Barnegat Bay and past studies that were conducted on the road. Her position is a volunteer position so I really appreciate all of her help so far! We also have volunteers who are acting as “Terrapin Stewards” where they also conduct road patrols to collect sightings of terrapins, educate visitors to the road about terrapins, and they also make sure terrapins safely cross the road. Without their help this project would not be successful!

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Reduce the speed limit on Great Bay Blvd.

Wednesday, January 18th, 2012
Ask Little Egg Harbor to help us protect terrapins!

by Ben Wurst, Habitat Program Manager

This female northern diamondback terrapin was not able to lay her clutch of eggs after being killed by a motor vehicle on Great Bay Blvd. © Ben Wurst

Currently there are no posted speed limits on Great Bay Boulevard from Sea Isle Drive to the east end in Little Egg Harbor Township, Ocean County, New Jersey. The road bisects one of the largest state wildlife management areas along the entire coast of New Jersey which is also designated as the Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve. Designation as a National Estuarine Research Reserve is “to promote the responsible use and management of the nation’s estuaries through a program combining scientific research, education, and stewardship.” The habitat alongside the road is home a diverse array of wildlife and one species, the northern diamondback terrapin, often crosses the roadway to get to prime nesting areas along the road shoulders.

Female terrapins range in length from 6-9″ and actively search for nesting areas during summers months from May through July. They are hard to see with their dark coloration and high speed limits make identification even harder. On some days as many as 50 terrapins can be seen crossing the road. Many people stop to help these terrapins cross safely and they themselves put their lives in jeopardy. Luckily no one has been seriously injured or killed yet. Unfortunately, terrapins aren’t so lucky, previous studies have indicated that up to 30% of terrapins are killed on Great Bay Blvd. while attempting to find suitable nesting areas (Szerlag and McRobert, 2006).

The Township of Little Egg Harbor knows about the problem there but has done little to help solve it. Public safety should be a serious concern for any type of government. In other parts of New Jersey and in other states people and property have been seriously injured or killed and damaged while either helping one cross safely or by avoiding a collision with them.

Little Egg Harbor can help reduce the chances that a pedestrian gets killed or injured, and they can reduce the amount of terrapins that are killed by motor vehicles. By reducing the speed limit along the road from 50 mph to 30mph both people and wildlife benefit and motorists get to their destination safely.

References: 
Szerlag, S., and S. P. McRobert. 2006. Road occurrence and mortality of the northern diamondback terrapin. Applied Herpetology 3:27-37.

 

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Volunteers needed to help install barrier fence

Wednesday, June 1st, 2011
Protecting Terrapins through conservation along Great Bay Blvd.

by Ben Wurst, Habitat Program Manager

Great Bay Blvd. in Little Egg Harbor, New Jersey. © Ben Wurst

Northern Diamondback Terrapins are native to New Jersey and inhabit the many miles of coastal salt marshes along the Atlantic Coast and Delaware Bay. Terrapins were once very common and were used as a main food source of protein by Native Americans and then European settlers. In the early 1900’s it was hunted so extensively that it almost faced extinction. Luckily, during the 1920’s, use of terrapins for food dropped in popularity. This allowed the population to slightly recover and avoid extinction. However, several major threats still threaten their survival. Habitat loss, mortality from being drowned in crab traps, and road mortality all pose major threats to the health of the population. Each year thousands of terrapins are killed by motor vehicles throughout their range and here in New Jersey, Great Bay Boulevard is no exception.

Great Bay Boulevard or Seven Bridges Road extends approximately 5 miles into estuarine emergent wetlands and northern diamondback terrapin nesting habitat. The boulevard is surrounded by over 5,500 acres of protected coastal habitat (Great Bay Boulevard Wildlife Management Area – Managed by NJ Division of Fish and Wildlife), a relatively unspoiled, estuarine ecosystem. This road, at times, has high a volume of traffic, especially on weekends when boaters and outdoorsmen travel on the road to get to and from one of the several active marinas along the road. Currently during May-August there is no protection to terrapins when they cross Great Bay Blvd. from vehicle traffic. Most terrapins who cross the road are adult females who are laden with eggs and are looking for a suitable nesting site. These females lay their eggs in a sand/gravel mixture where it is easy for them to dig and cover their eggs, like sandy beaches and in scrub-shrub habitat along road edges. Many female terrapins are inadvertently hit-by-car and injured or killed by speeding motorists or people unaware of the summer nesting habits of the terrapin. This high mortality rate has caused the local population to decline and it has also caused the average size of adults to drop significantly over the past 20 years.

How you can help:

Volunteers are needed to help install ~ 4,000 ft. of barrier fencing along Great Bay Blvd to help reduce the amount of road kills. Sambol construction will be helping us by trenching a ditch for us to place the fence in. Volunteers will help lay out fence, install metal posts, hang fence, and back fill trenches.

  • Please pack a lunch and bring plenty of water, sunblock, and bug spray.
  • We are starting work on Friday at 8am, but if we don’t finish, we’ll wrap up work on Saturday morning.
  • We will meet after the first bridge; click here for a Google Map link. You can park here and then we can car pool to the section of the road where the fence will be installed.
  • Please register if you plan to attend by emailing Ben Wurst.

Check out our project page on Facebook and become a fan today!

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Are you Aware?

Wednesday, February 2nd, 2011
Protecting Terrapins Through Education and Awareness

By Ben Wurst, Habitat Program Manager

Female Northern Diamondback terrapin by Jonathan Carlucci

Terrapins are ectothermic, or they are cold-blooded, and their activity is regulated by external temperatures in the environment. While they may be dormant at the moment, I’m far from that. I’ve never stopped working to protect terrapins from the end of last year’s nesting season. While it’s almost impossible to prevent every terrapin from being hit-by-car, it’s more important to highlight the need for protection and for people to become more aware of terrapins when driving.

Here are a few things I’m working on to help terrapins in the Great Bay area this year:
  • I’ve been working on getting some funding to help raise awareness, i.e. more X-ING signs, other signs (like “slow down, terrapin X-ING”) and other educational materials.
  • I developed an educational presentation about terrapins and our work to protect them. I just presented it for the first time a couple weeks ago at the Jacques Cousteau Coastal Educational Center in Tuckerton.
  • I have been in touch with the town engineer for Little Egg Harbor Twp. about lowering the speed limit on Great Bay Blvd. this year. The speed is currently 50mph!! For a road with soft shoulders (and in some areas, saltmarsh or shrubs that are growing onto the road), seven bridges, a lot of human use in summer, terrapins that nest on the edges and enter the roadway, and the fact that it divides a pristine Wildlife Management Area, it is just way too high.
  • I am attending both the environmental commission and town council meeting this month to address my concerns and to ask for their support for our project.
  • I recently met with officers from the Osborne Island Homeowners Association to assist them with protecting terrapins along Radio Rd.
  • I am developing a volunteer project where volunteers will help patrol area roadways to educate the public about terrapins, to help them cross roads safely, and to help document terrapins on roadways.
If you would like to help us protect terrapins in the Great Bay area, we could use your help!

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