I am a physical geography student at the University of Fraser Valley, and joined Wildlife Preservation Canada\u00a0 to work with the western painted turtle recovery program in the area this season. We are looking for western painted turtles so we can monitor the health of the population, protect nests to increase juvenile recruitment and remove eggs at risk to incubate them to safely hatch at Greater Vancouver Zoo before returning them to the wild.<\/p>\n
Monitoring endangered western painted turtles during nesting season is an itchy unpredictable job. With nesting running in the evening from around mid-May to mid-July, the turtles have chosen peak mosquito season to draw researchers into the field.<\/p>\n
The swarms of mosquitos around parts of the Nicomen Slough which runs along the north side of the Fraser River between Hatzic Lake and Lake Errock are suspected to be an important contributor to the larger turtle population. As someone who loves cold weather, it is not fun trying to balance wearing enough layers that the bugs cannot bite, and not being too hot. Even wearing a bug suit and reapplying mosquito repellant left me rushing into an ice-cold shower as soon as I got home because of all my bites after a few demanding shifts. On cooler days, I could hack back blackberry bushes and other invasive plants from the nesting beaches but, with the western painted turtles preferring sunny 20-30\u00b0C days to nest, my shifts often ended up being rescheduled. Luckily, mosquitos are not the only animals that also love early summer weather.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
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