Return of the Turtle Dogs!!

Photo by S. Wyrick

Sometimes I can't believe my good fortune.

But, as a wiser man than myself once said: "It's better to be lucky than good".  Can't remember who actually said it....but I'm pretty sure I first heard it from my dad.

Anyways.....those of you that have read my blog from the beginning (a small group, to be sure :)  ) might remember my past adventures with John Rucker and his Turtle Dogs.  This was back in 2011, when I still lived in North Carolina.  After my experience with John, I raved about the Turtle Dogs to my colleagues who work for the regulatory agency in the state where I currently live.

Well, this apparently snow-balled until....lo-and-behold.....John and his Turtle Dogs were up here this spring helping the state wildlife folks with surveys.  This time, however, we were not looking for the Eastern Box Turtle (Terrapene carolina) from down in NC.  The goal this time was the incredibly rare, and protected Ornate Box Turtle (Terrapena ornata). 

Turtles, in general, have it pretty rough.  They are slow to mature (taking decades in some species), they often experience reproductive failure (their nests are the focus of many mesopredators, like Raccoons, Skunks, Red Fox, Opossums); and even if the eggs survive, the hatchling turtles are bite-sized morsels for all of those same predators.  If anthropogenic influences were not a factor, being long-lived (and, thus, having many possible reproductive events possible in one's life) can help off-set high nest and juvenile mortality.  Yet, we no longer live in a land where anthropogenic influences can be avoided.  Habitat loss (particularly nesting habitat) have forced turtles to concentrate nesting activities in smaller and smaller suitable areas...where they are easy to find by mesopredators (who learn to return annually and can decimate a population's reproductive success).

One strategy to help off-set the low recruitment that many turtle populations experience is referred to as "head-starting".  Head-starting programs usually involve the harvesting of eggs from fresh turtle nests, the incubation of those eggs in captivity (so they avoid the nest-predators) and the eventual release of the hatchlings.  There are many pros and cons to head-starting of turtles that can be discussed.....but I feel this post is already growing a bit "wordy"...so we'll plunge on. 

But, the strategy of head-starting turtles becomes important later in my post.

John and his dogs worked with state regulators for the better part of a week in early May, surveying various sites for turtles.  Trying to assess populations and re-confirm box turtle presence at some of these sites.  Another goal of the dog surveys was to catch as many previously head-started box turtles as possible.  The head-starting program for this species in the state was instigated about 12 years ago....and many of the first head-started individuals should be of (or near) sexual maturity.

The best part?  Well, my colleagues at the state agency agreed to allow myself and a number of my students come with for a day.  This was a rare opportunity: using a unique survey method to catch rare species.  We needed to be at the top of our game! 

And, as usual, the weather was not on our side.....cold, windy and rain the night before.  Rain isn't good if you need dogs to follow a scent trail.  But...not much could be done about it. 

We also planned on spending alot of time pounding the ground doing visual surveys for turtles that the dogs may have missed due to poor environmental conditions.

We were scheduled to meet the dogs et al., at about noon.....but decided to start early and survey a site without the aid of dogs to help supplement their later surveys.

So our boots were on the ground by 10 am, and we walked parallel to eachother across the survey area.....

 

Luckily, the herps were still out, despite the cold....although we had to get on some steep slopes to find them (like this little box turtle).

 

A nice Racer (Coluber constrictor)....

...and even a beauty of a Bullsnake (Pituophis catenifer sayi).....

...this individual was nice enough to let us "probe" him.  Allow me to explain (very breifly below). 

The most definitive way to determine gender on a snake is to take a smooth and blunt metal stick (called a probe).  This stick is very thin and can be inserted into the cloaca of a snake (the area where the snake goes to the bathroom out of; see pic above).  If the probe goes in a distance that is approximately 1/3 of the snake's tail length, it's a male.  Why?  Because males have a bifurcated reproductive structure (or a structure with two "halves") called a hemipenis located there.   The hemipenis is essentially everted into the cloaca of the female during copulation.  They are often spikey...to help the male get a grip (no arms or legs, remember) while sperm is transferred.  When males are not copulating, these hemipenes are inverted inside the base of the tail....it is the inverted hemipenis that accommodates the probe so that it slides into the cloaca. 

If it's a female snake....the probe wont slide in.

Make sense?  See more here.

ANYWAYS......our first visual survey was successfull.  Overall, we found five box turtles....one Bullsnake and a few Racers.  By then, it was time to leave so we could meet John and the state wildlife folks at a different site. 

After our arrival, and general plan of attack was formulated, we headed out.  As a group, we hit the prairie, following John and the pooches as they went to work.

Part of our job was to supplement the dog surveys again with visual surveys.  The wet weather cold weather was hampering success.  Aside from affecting how long scent persists, the cold also meant the box turtles were probably not moving much (in other words, not leaving very long scent trails).

Yet, the dogs were happy and would not be deterred!

 

....soon a cry went up that they had found a turtle!  A sweet little female....

 

So...it was our turn to shine.  Every time a turtle was caught (via dogs or visually) our students were jumping to their tasks.  In addition to assisting with the visual surveys, the students were responsible for flagging the location of capture with a number, putting that number on the turtle with marker on duct tape, getting a GPS reading, and bringing the turtle back to "base camp" for later processing.

Once the first turtles were taken back for processing, we continued on-ward....looking for more turtles....

Although the dogs were successful, we had nearly equal success doing visual surveys as the dogs did that day.  This is was much different than what I experienced in NC, and really enforces the importance of environmental conditions in the success of the dogs.

Ultimately, between the dogs and our own prowess, we found a decent number of turtles across the sites we surveyed.


These turtles above were all found at one of two sites we visited that day.  These were found by a combination of dogs and people

Photo by R. Jacques

The students also got to see a nice adult Blanding's Turtle (Emydoidea blandingii) that just happened to be on the roadside as we entered one of the box turtle sites....


A Blanding's Turtle (foreground) and two Ornate Box Turtles (Background)

Blanding's turtlees are aquatic, unlike the Ornate Box Turtle, which is fully terrestrial (land-dwelling).  Yet, the Blanding's Turtle has a higher domed shell than most of the aquatic turtles that folks are familiar with, such as Painted Turtles (Chrysemys picta).  The Blanding's also has a bright yellow chin and yellow plastron (lower shell) with dark patches on each scute. 


Note the yellow just barely visible on the chin of this Blanding's Turtle above (right)

Both of these species are very rare in our neck of the woods.  Loss of habitat (prairie for the Ornate Box Turtle and wetland for the Blanding's Turtle) have greatly impaced both species.  Their very slow development and high nest/offspring mortality rate also works against them, as with the Ornate Box Turtle.  Blanding's Turtles, for example, can take nearly 20 years to reach sexual maturity!

So....the turtles were gathered up and the students helped in weighing, measuring and marking the turtles prior to their return...

 

 

 

And, finally, the Pièce de résistance.....

One of the goals of these dog surveys was to assess how effective the headstarting program had been for the Box Turtles.  We were about 12 or 13 years post-initiation of this program in the state, which means that some of these headstarted individuals released at the beginning could now be sexually mature.

If it could be determined that some of the headstarted females were gravid (holding eggs), that would be a very good benchmark for success.

Luckily, the folks from a university further south were there with a portable ultra-sound unit to see if any of the gals might be carrying babies....

Now...while I don't want to give away all of the suprises....I will say that the gals examined with the ultra-sund looked to be carrying alittle extra baggage :)

And, so it was that our first day of turtle surveys ended.  The surveys were mostly successfull and my students made me very happy, by doing such a great job (the state regulators we were out with commented on this to me as well).

Did I say "first day"?  That's right!

More to come!

More Phenology 2013: Tiny Peepers and Other Little Ditties

Today (April 15th) marked the first time I've heard Spring Peepers (Pseudacris crucifer) this year.  Much like their congener the Chorus Frog (Pseudacris triseriata), Peepers are one of the earlier frogs to call in our region.

The species name "crucifer" is in reference to the X-shaped mark (or cross) on their backs.

Like most amphibians, the Peeper must lay its eggs in water, which is the reason why the males call around wetlands this time of year (i.e., to attract females for reproduction).  Although many larger frog species around here lay their eggs in large gelatinous "masses", the Peeper is alittle different.  They lay their eggs singly, or in small clumps, attached to vegetation in the water.

The tadpoles are also small and mostly non-descript to the unfamiliar eye.  In general, tadpoles of frogs in the "Treefrog" group (Family Hylidae), which includes the Gray Treefrog, Cope's Gray Treefrog, Chorus Frog and Spring Peeper in our fine state, have a deep tail.  Peeper tadpoles don't get as large as the Treefrog tads....but are similar in size to the Chorus Frog tads....which makes them hard to ID as tadpoles.

Otherwise, it's been for the birds.....

A Pair O' Canada Geese (Branta canadensis)

Goosey, Goosey Gander laying down the law.....

....and Fido turning the tables on Goosey......

Also, a confused Sandhill Crane....

Some other firsts for the year:
April 3: Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (yard)
April 7: Eastern bluebird (prairie on campus)
April 7: Goldfinch (yard)
April 15: Tree Swallow (prairie on campus)

I should also point out that recently I attended the National Council of Undergraduate Research to support some of my students that were presenting data from our research projects (where I also saw Alyssa doing a very nice job of presenting some of her research).  This conference is the reason why I took a week off of the blog.  There were about 11 total ecology students from my institution attending the conference and as a group we took a small field trip to a neighboring marsh (~2 hr hike).  While there, we saw a variety of birds, despite the short time frame.

Here's a hasty species list, based on what I can recall:

The aquatic birds were particularly obvious:
American Coot
Pied-Billed Grebe
Great Blue Heron
Scaup (couldn't tell if it was Lesser or Greater)
Ringneck Duck
Blue-Winged Teal
Bufflehead
Mallard
American Black Duck
American Wood Duck
Northern Shoveler

There were a few Raptors
American Kestrel
Bald Eagle (Juvenile)

A few odds 'n' ends, and I'm sure we heard more that I couldn't identify (my bird call ID is rusty!)....
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Belted Kingfisher

Then there were the common ones....the Red-winged Blackbirds, the Common Grackles, the European Starlings, the North American Robins, and such.....

Overall, it was a good experience for the students and an enjoyable for me to watch them mature as professionals.

Riparian Walkers

I had almost forgotten about this camera set.  The pictures below were part of a monitoring project I ran on property owned by the North Carolina Zoo.  From February 2010 to July 2011, we conducted a vertebrate invenotry on this property, which included drift fences and coverboards for small vertebrates, radio telemetry on Eastern Box Turtles (Terrapene carolina carolina) and, of course, camera traps for the big guys.

The camera that took most of the pictures below was placed along a nice riparian corridor for a few months during this period (Feb 17 to April 19, 2011) to see who was hanging around.  This was one of several cameras  deployed at various locations throughout the property.  Unfortunately, most of our camera trap captures on the site were of White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus).

The Riparian corridor provided our best variety.  It also represents my only venture into the realm of ScoutGuard cameras.  I can't even remember what model it was (the SG550?).  Anyways, I have to admit that I was at first very impressed....but this waned after a series of malfunctions, returns and straight-up inconveniences on the part of the camera (including an external remote..which you had to bring into the field with you and plug into the camera to program it).

Anyhoo....some neat pictures were captured near this heavily wooded stream crossing.

A juvenile Red-Shouldered Hawk (Buteo lineatus) flew down to the stream on back-to-back days for a drink?  Trying to grab a frog?  With alittle help from my buddy Bill over at The Future Of Birds, I was able to definitively identify this species!  They like woodlands associated with water, so it makes sense to see them here.

Above: Find the Buteo!  See the lower left-hand corner of the pic....

Above: Find the Buteo II!  In the background, standing in the water again.

The red-shouldered was by far the most unique thing captured by this camera.  Although, there were some neat pics of Racoons (Procyon lotor) wading around for frogs and fish.

And, of course, what series of pictures from a set in North Carolina would be complete without White-tailed Deer?  I quite liked the one below....with the reflection on the water......

Was also neat to get a shot of an American Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos) coming down for a sip.....

Throw in a ubiquitous Eastern Gray Squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis).......

...and a feral puddy tat....

...and that about 'rounds it out for this camera set (and, in fact, for the site).  Although we did get pics of two other species from other locations at this site, they weren't some of the riparian walkers.

There were a few precious shots of "talking dogs" (Canis latrans).....

...also one lonely Gray Fox photo (Urocyon cinereoargenteus) at a scent station.....

And....so long as I'm posting pics of feral puddy tats.....I might as well show a 'coon hound, that had to belong to a tresspassing hunter.  He stopped by for a sniff at the scent station I put out at this spot.  Although there are stray dogs on-site, there's no way that a stray has a reflective collar with a GPS unit strapped to his neck......