Studying turtles

For my summer vacation I had the chance to study turtles. Much of the work invovled catching turtles and recording all kinds of data and then quickly releasing them. We looked for nests in areas with exposed sandy banks, without success.  We did find some predated nests.  On Thursday, we started out by checking our hoop nets.  There was only one snapper, which we measured and marked (by filing triangles into the posterior marginal scutes). A stressful experience for the snapper, but a painless process overall. We captured several painted turtles, measured them and marked two which had not been caught previously.  During the six hour paddle we saw many herons (at least four) and one green heron.


http://friendsofpinerypark.ca/SAR%20Turtle%202010%20Poster%20FINAL.pdf
 

Removing 13-14 year old female snapping turtle from hoop net (top), measuring (middle), Green Heron (Butorides virescens) (bottom)

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