The thing that is sometimes so difficult about species conservation is not that it takes time and lots of hard work, but that it can be so full of road-blocks. It can sometimes feel like one thing after another is going wrong. This is usually partly because that’s the nature of big projects – there are lots of learning curves, and success requires a constant effort to identify and work on areas that need improvement. But it’s also because the species targeted for conservation work need help are chosen because they are in trouble. Working with species at risk means that you have to face the things that threaten them head-on. Sometimes this can be difficult, both intellectually and emotionally. Sometimes it feels like no matter what you do, it won’t make a difference.

Maybe I’ll share some of those times with you in another blog post – but not today. Today is sunny and beautiful, the turtle project is running smoothly, I have an exciting new project to share with you in a few weeks (stay tuned!) and in honour of World Turtle Day I thought I’d share a few turtle-conservation-related things I’m currently happy about…

Amy pulls Christina out of ANOTHER hole…

1)      I have made it out of every muddy hole I’ve been stuck in this year so far. I know, you’re sick of hearing about mud… but it’s kind of on our minds this time of year!

2)      The team and I have processed and released over 300 turtles in our mark-recapture surveys already, and we’re not done yet! It looks more and more as though we might break all our “project records” so far.

Amy re-baits a trap in hopes of catching still more turtles…

3)      If you followed our blog last summer, you will remember that the 2012 turtle team rescued a badly injured Blanding’s turtle. The turtle was rehabilitated at Heaven’s Wildlife Rescue, and is currently at the Kawartha Turtle Trauma Centre in Peterborough, undergoing a final veterinary check with Dr. Sue Carstairs (you can learn more about the KTTC and their work at www.kawarthaturtle.org). We will release her as soon as Dr. Sue gives her a clean bill of health, and we’ll be sure to let you know how it goes!

One of the more hectic moments of our spring surveys: Amy (left) scans a bank for basking turtles while Pauline (centre) picks up one snapping turtle, and Maria (right) picks up another. One was already marked from a previous survey; the other was not.

4)      As in previous years, I have been extremely lucky to get some incredible new volunteers working on my project, as well as some familiar faces. Ashley Leifso and Christopher Law have already been back to help out, and we look forward to seeing them again over the summer. This year we also welcomed University of Guelph student Joe Renton, who has spent the last few weeks with us wrangling Snapping Turtles and learning all about Ontario reptiles. Joe just got a job with Ontario Parks, so we’re sad to see him go (and congratulations, Joe!). But he has promised to post a quick summary of his experiences on the project before we lose him for good, or at least for this year. We have several more volunteers arriving in the coming weeks, and as always, I am grateful for everyone’s hard work, good company, and dedication to turtle conservation.

Joe takes notes while Pauline measures and marks a Painted Turtle they just caught. Turtles caught in my study are released directly after marking and measuring, so they typically released in less than 20 minutes.

And of course, this project would not be possible without the generous support of WPC’s donors, large and small. To all of you who help support our work – thank you, again and again!

– Christina

Our team in B.C. has prepared burrows for owls to safely lay eggs and hatch nestlings to help repopulate this threatened population. Watch the team care for the little nestlings in this video.

The Freshwater Turtle team in Ontario, led by Christina Davy, wish you all a very happy World Turtle Day! They are doing their part to ensure that Ontario’s threatened turtle populations do not disappear forever. Read about their work here.

A male Blanding’s turtle on the move…

Andrea Gielens, leader of Wildlife Preservation Canada’s British Columbia’s Wetland Species initiative, concentrating on the Oregon Spotted Frog and Western Painted Turtle, reports on World Turtle Day in her part of the country.

Happy World Turtle day everyone! In BC we celebrated World Turtle Day a little bit early at one of our turtle breeding sites in the Lower Mainland. Tents and games and education all day at Burnaby Lake park brought out many visitors to learn about turtles and meet our turtle ambassadors! Education focused on impacts of introduced species and reducing impacts on Western Painted Turtles. As always our ambassador baby Painted Turtles stole the show, as well as the giant female Red-eared Slider loaned to us by our reptile rescue partner.

Kids took part in our colouring contest, knowledge quiz and built paper turtles. Prizes included Turtles brand chocolates, turtle stuffed animals and of course Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles toys!

World Turtle Day events in British Columbia

After many cold weeks of surveying, more bouts with snow, hail, and sub-zero temperatures than would be expected in late-April and May, the sun is finally shining and the temperatures are now seasonal.

The warm weather has not only enticed the shrikes back to their nesting territories, but also many other grassland birds. The fields are alive with a multitude of sparrows, including Savannah, Field, Song, Grasshopper and Clay-Coloured species. Eastern Meadowlarks abound in almost every patch we survey, and Bobolinks showed up in droves over the past week. The strange sounds of Upland Sandpipers, and bizarre display flights of Wilson’s Snipe entertain us regularly. As soon as the sun warms up the air the fields come alive with the sound of dozens of bird species, you just have to stop and take it all in.

It’s not just the birds that are enjoying the sun and warmth. The once drab, brown fields have erupted with colours. The grasses turned green overnight and are now carpeted in scores of flowers. The trees finally have leaves and blooms, which only make finding birds more difficult. The lilacs are in flower, creating much more pleasant smelling surveys compared to the normal cattle and chicken scents which greet us every morning.

Despite the shining sun there are some downsides to the warming weather. Rain puts a halt on all of our survey efforts, not to mention the gale force winds that have been welcoming us recently. When trees are bending over, scopes are falling down and hats are flying off our heads, the birds just might be hunkering down. It can be discouraging when the sun is shining and you want to survey or check on one of our pairs, but if you cannot hear anything over the wind, and Northern Harriers are struggling to fly, surveying and monitoring just might not be possible. Time to head back and catch up on paperwork.

Here’s to a sunny and seasonal Spring and Summer,

Emily

May 18, 2013

Although the Ojibway Prairie Complex houses many interesting species, what could be more interesting than the ONLY venomous snake found in Ontario… the Massasauga Rattlesnake! At least that’s my opinion. The Ojibway population of Massasauga, found in the Windsor/LaSalle area, is unique both ecologically and genetically as it differs even from other Massasauga populations found in Ontario. Unfortunately, the Ojibway Massasauga population has been declining for the past 40 years.

Due to decreases in the size and distribution of the population, active management is now needed to help these unique snakes survive. This is why the Ojibway Massasauga Recovery Project was initiated. Check out the Massasauga Rattlesnake profile for more details:

http://wildlifepreservation.ca/species-in-need/canadian-species/massasauga-rattlesnake/

With a Bachelor of Environmental Science from the University of Windsor and a Masters of Environment and Sustainability from Western University currently underway, I’m prepared to take on the task of finding as many of these venomous snakes as I can to help the population out. Ever since I can remember I’ve had a passion for the outdoors and have caught more snakes, turtles and frogs than I’d like to admit. It’s funny how some people never change and in this case some would argue never really grow up either (seeing as I’m still chasing snakes through the forests of South Windsor where I grew up)!

Not only do I have experience looking for snakes but I have a fair amount of experience in field biology. Oddly enough, my experience has nothing to do with snakes… In fact, you won’t find snakes anywhere near where I was, seeing as I was monitoring marine mammal populations in the Canadian Arctic. For three summers I was a field assistant/field technician working with organizations such as the Ocean Tracking Network and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans during my employment with the Great Lakes Institute of Environmental Research (GLIER). The team and I would conduct systematic marine mammal surveys on an uncomfortably small boat, recording everything we saw. While there I got to partake in other interesting scientific activities including deploying passive acoustic devices to track certain marine species and even biopsy Bowhead whales using crossbows (see image to the right).

Alright, enough for now… For more about the Massasauga Recovery Project check in with the next post which will likely be up in a week or so once I’ve hit the field and hopefully found a few rattlers!

-Eric

University of Calgary researchers marking and photographing the first new capture of an Ord’s kangaroo rat in 2013.

Research and recovery activities on the endangered Ord’s kangaroo rat in Canada are now underway again for 2013 in Alberta, with support by Wildlife Preservation Canada. Similar to last year, the University of Calgary research team led by Dr. Darren Bender will be conducting more trials to determine if kangaroo rats can be relocated from productive habitats in Canada to areas of quality habitat where the species previously existed, but is now currently absent or under-populated. Unfortunately for species like the Ord’s kangaroo rat, losses to the population occur each year, particularly over the winter period when up to 90% of animals can be lost to due to starvation or predation, meaning that unoccupied or under-populated habitat is common. It is hoped that by developing effective protocols for moving healthy animals to quality, unoccupied habitats, we can develop a management tool that will maximize the distribution of the species in Canada and ensure its future persistence.

Unfortunately this spring, the research team received a big blow — the Alberta population that was the focus of this study has suffered heavily from over-winter mortality, and the kangaroo rat population size is currently believed to be at its lowest in more than a decade. A number of productive habitat sites that have been monitored continuously since 1995 and known to support rats each year are either now locally extirpated (no more animals to be found there) or are occupied by a very small number of individuals. In fact, a recent visit to the largest and most productive patch of habitat for kangaroo rats in Alberta in 2012 was visited by the research team in days ago, only to reveal that the number of kangaroo rats has dropped from up to 100 residents in 2012 to less than five this spring. A number of other sites also appear to no longer be occupied by  kangaroo rats  this spring.

While this news is disturbing and generates substantial concern regarding the future persistence of this species, which is already on the brink of extinction in Canada, a small measure of good news also comes from the UofC research team. Two critical sites in the CFB Suffield National Wildlife Area appear to be healthy and strong, and a large number of kangaroo rats in very healthy condition were recaptured there last week. Also, one previously inaccessible site in 2011/2012 was surveyed again this spring, and kangaroo rat numbers appear to be exceptionally high for this part of the year. So perhaps there will be a large enough ‘core’ population to re-establish themselves in Alberta and offset continued population decline for the species, particularly if researchers can effectively move some rats from productive areas to unoccupied habitats where the rats will have the best chance of future growth and survival. Expect future updates from the research team once more information becomes available.

Spring tends to come later in the Maritimes than other parts of Canada.  While the swallows have been back for a few weeks now, they are slow to begin nesting.  The Tree Swallows are most eager, with nests were built and lined last week.  On Friday, May 10th, the first egg was finally laid.  The other three species (Bank, Barn and Cliff Swallows) have been seen near colonies occupied last year and I’m hopeful they’ll begin nesting soon.

A Tree Swallow sits on a fence near its nest box.

In addition to monitoring swallow reproductive success this year, I will be making contact with landowners in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick and identifying new colonies to study during of my doctoral research over the next couple years.  This research will use a combination of monitoring during the breeding season, geolocator deployment and lab techniques (e.g., stress hormones and stable isotopes) to identify the threats and limiting factors for these four species in the Maritimes.

Tara

We (the freshwater turtle project crew) are constantly faced with new challenges, be it slugging through marsh waist deep in mud or the extremes of weather, both hot and cold. However, our hardships are always worthwhile and the work is very gratifying. I have been working on various reptile conservation projects across Ontario for four years now and every so often there still does come a time when I get surprised by things.

The most recent surprise is what the turtles we are working so hard to conserve can go through in a lifetime. There are many dangers to turtles out there and many of the turtles we find show signs of their ongoing struggle for survival. The most amazing turtle I found on this project so far had gone through A LOT!

A large and very old male Snapping Turtle was basking in shallow water in an open area between cattail patches. At first it seemed like any Snapping Turtle that was warm and had a lot of energy to defend itself with but, then while staring into the misty eyes of that snapping turtle I realized that both of his eyes had cataracts and the shell that I was gripping tightly to had very old propeller cuts.

In order to shine some light on the situation for those who may never have gazed into the eyes of a turtle: Snapping Turtles usually have gorgeous clear eyes that are dark in the center but tinted in yellow and lighter browns so bright they look like coppers and gold.

A Snapping Turtle gazes into the camera. The left eye has a cataract (see the milky white spot on the eye?) while the right eye is clear and looks unaffected. This is not the turtle Pauline is describing – he had cataracts in both eyes! But this way you can see an unaffected and an affected eye side by side.

This old guy definitely had reason to defend himself. The cuts had healed with time, but there is no way to know how severely cataracts affect vision in turtles. It is possible he couldn’t even see what had picked him up.

How could a Snapping Turtle possibly survive so long with so many injuries and without the ability to see properly?  This question is what really baffled me today. After four years of finding scratches and dents on turtles, I had never come across one that might be fully blind.

The answer I came up with is quite simple really. A turtle living underneath a cattail mat, in mud and tannin stained water probably can’t see very well through this part of its natural habitat. Snapping Turtles do have other senses that are very strong and possibly more important to finding their food than the ability to see. Snapping Turtles use sense of smell to find dead fish in the water and recycle those nutrients into the marsh. They also have barbels that look like awkward growths sticking out from under the chin but are actually used to sense movement in the water and what is underneath them, allowing the snapping turtle to avoid or escape danger and maneuver in areas where I know I would never be able to use my eyes.

I can only guess at the level to which Snapping Turtles use their eyes or how much cataracts affect their sight, since getting a snapping turtle to do an eye exam would be quite challenging - even for us on this turtle project!

With plenty more thoughts to come, I’ll part with you here,
– Pauline

Spotted frog rearing is coming along nicely. The tadpoles are growing very quickly! They are devouring their diet of leafy greens and bloodworms. We are testing the viability of captive laid tadpoles compared to wild laid tadpoles. So far there isn’t a noticeable distinction but only closer examination and time will tell if there is differences in survival, growth rate, or metamorphic size. Some tadpoles are also being tested to ensure the response to predators is the same for captive laid tadpoles to wild laid tadpoles. These trials are being done in partnership with SFU, with results coming at the end of the summer.

Our turtles have really gone through a growth spurt since the end of March. Many are approaching the 20 gram mark and even the smallest have more than doubled with weight in a month. Needless to say our initial goal for weight at release in the fall is surpassed for most individuals! We are contemplating a early release for the larger turtles in order to stage our efforts and provide the hatchlings with more time in the wild to acclimatize before release. A 30 day stint in the soft release cages in the wild will hopefully allow them to gain familiarity with the water, foraging opportunities, and allow them some exposure to natural parasites while still being readily observable. 

I have been to many community outreach events recently, naturalist meetings, school environmental clubs, Party for the Planet and of course will be at our upcoming local Turtle Day events!

These past few weeks have also been a time of great collaborations. We have partnered with the local reptile rescue to care for an influx of surrendered Painted Turtles we have been receiving recently, as a result of the success of the program I suppose! We have also partnered with a local veterinarian who specializes in herps who is offered to do vet checks and parasite screening for us. The rescue has offered to house and treat turtles for us until we have capacity at the zoo to hold them pre-release. We are also collaborating with the rescue for a month long turtle education extravaganza at their education center. We are also working together on a ban for the sale of turtles under 4 inches in the City of Abbotsford. This would ban the sale of small turtles, which leads to a large scale abandonment problem when the turtles grow too large to be managed by their owners. We will be presenting our proposal at the city council meeting at the end of the month!

A small snapper basks in dense grass near the water’s edge and hopes we haven’t spotted her yet…

Turtling with the team is an eye opening experience in many ways. Not only was I completely unaware of how pathetic stairmaster’s would forever appear to me after slogging around a marsh seven days in a row, but for some reason I forgot that snapping turtles existed. Encountering “snappers” while surveying for turtles meant they would have to be processed just like the rest of them.

The first time I spotted one I realized I had no idea what to do next. I had seen the girls fearlessly pick the snappers up from behind and flip them onto their backs like they were fluffy, wide-eyed puppies so I figured it couldn’t really be THAT scary. Besides, I was a professional and that turtle was part of the marsh ecosystem and as an aspiring ecologist, it demanded my full attention.

I crept in behind the unsuspecting reptile as it crouched in its hiding spot under floating vegetation.  Like I’d witnessed, I gripped the back of its shell and prepared to lift it onto the bank to be processed.

It instantly jerked forward and I felt something scaly and rough brush against my hand.

I screamed my head off and nearly leaped out of the marsh.

It was its foot.

I felt ridiculous, but the team understood my squeamishness and Pauline brought the turtle in for me. From that moment on I swore I would learn to handle the snappers properly if it took the last of my sanity.

Maria uses her new-found Snapper-handling skills to measure the shell length of an unimpressed but reasonably cooperative Snapping Turtle

Once you have them on their backs and you see how they cover their faces with their hands and look like they’re just desperately trying not to die, you stop being so scared of them and are more concerned with making their experience as painless as possible. Imagine if a giant picked you up off the ground while you were grocery shopping and started poking you in the stomach with a long, floppy object with weird writing on it? (That’s a tape measure, if you were wondering) I’d be losing it, that’s for sure. So, you don’t really blame them, no matter how much they scratch you up with their massive claws.

Most of the time, anyway. Sometimes you find yourself begging them to just stay still already so everyone can go home happy, despite the fact that they clearly can’t understand you.

Measuring and marking over, it’s time to release this small Snapping Turtle back into its habitat…

The rest of the time I’ve been building up my endurance and trying not to scare the team too much with my odd sense of humour. I find it helps take the edge off when you laugh at yourself as your leg is suction cupped inside three feet of mud. Having holes in your chest waders just makes it FUNNIER, not horrible. Mud water is your friend. Friend…

– Maria Ciancio (Snapper Wrangler Extraordinaire)

Pauline (left) and Maria (right) use as many kinds of crazy glue and other sticky substances as they can think of in a desperate attempt to prevent wet socks on the next survey (we are sad to report the efforts were unsuccessful!)