Finding Snapping Turtle Nests For Conservation

By Raul Nordstrom

Snapping Turtles are powerful, enduring and beautiful creatures that have been around for millions of years. Their evolution occurred before the majority of turtles and their rugged design hasn’t changed since. While the common snapping turtle has a wide distribution and strong numbers, in northern patches of the usa there can be merely 1-5 snappers per hectacre. Numbers in the southern United States are usually more promising and have around 65 snapping turtles per hectacre. The alligator snapping turtle, on the other hand, is considered threatened and is protected by law in several states. The snapping turtle in fact, can lay clutches of 20-50 eggs, but only about 133 of every 1,300 eggs survive to leave the nest. Out of the 133 hatchlings, just 1 will live to adulthood. Most eggs and hatchlings fall victim to predation within the first 36 months of life, if not before they hatch. What some groups do is protect the nests and capture hatchlings when they climb out. These hatchlings may then be raised for about 3 years and released to the wild or perhaps transported to the nearest body of water safely.

The hardest part of conserving and studying snapping turtle nests is, undoubtedly, finding a nest. Snapping turtles lay eggs on dry land, clear of flood planes. Often it is about 100-500 meters from the female’s usual habitat, but it sometimes can be as much as a mile away. Quite often we have seen these turtle nests in odd placeslike front lawns, man-made mulch hiking trails, gravel in the shoulder of roads, and even loose gravel driveways. Between lawn mowers, foot traffic, and car tires, these turtles are definitely not stacking the odds of survival in their favor. I personally have raised snapping turtle hatchlings that I have found seeking to cross 3 or 4 roads to get to a water source that would seem to be a two day marathon for the little guy.

Locating the nest

*Knowing when: Snapping turtles dig their nest and lay eggs in May and June. If you are stalking for a nest, you can start during early May. (We’ll explain in a bit) If you are scouting for a nest, you can do this through July and August.

*Scouting for a nest: This is the hardest and the most unsuccessful means of finding a nest. This involves pacing the perimeter of a portion of a pond or lake, starting at about 40 yards out and incrementally moving farther from the water. Doing a complete sweep of a section of land, be on the lookout for a circle, about 10 inches in diameter, of loose, tilled up dirt. This is often on high ground in grassy spots, leafy spots, mulch, sometimes slightly recessed. See how this can be difficult? It could be anywhere up to a mile away from water.

*Stalking for a nest: This is time consuming, but can be relaxing and very effective. Right as the snapping turtles are getting ready to begin nesting, simply sit back in your lawn chair and your binoculars and observe turtle behavior at a pond or lake. Spending your evenings observing turtles leaving the water to go on land, you can stay a good distance away and watch the turtle dig the nest. If you can, stick around and see if she begins laying the eggs because sometimes they just dig nests to test out the spot. If it is a backyard pond, ideally you can even get some cameras pointing out the back porch for some of the time you can’t be there observing.

When you know the nesting location, don’t dig up the nest unless you are very skilled at taking care of turtle eggs. The embryos attach to the top side of the egg shell and rolling them over will kill them. Not to mention having to incubate the eggs even if you do successfully transport them. The safest option to capture the hatchlings is to make a fine mesh box you can set over the nest without disturbing it. Starting in mid August, begin checking the mesh cage one or two times a day, everyday. If a few hatchlings emerge, remove them and place the mesh box back over the nest until you are certain that all viable eggs have hatched.

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Topics: WildLife | Comments Off

Tags: animals, family, Pets, recreation, Science, WildLife

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