On the Longevity of Turtles
I would wager that the oldest wild animal in almost every state in the lower 48 is some sort of turtle, but knowing exactly how long they can live is a fairly tricky matter to resolve. Wood Turtles (Glyptemys insculpta), for example, have been confirmed up to at least 55 years of age in the […]
Elusive Wood Turtles
“I’ve lived here my whole life and if there were orange-legged turtles crawling around on my farm I’d know about it”. We’ve heard iterations of that line several times now, and perhaps my favorite followup quote, uttered moments after finding two Wood Turtles near the farm’s river ford, went something like “I’ll be dipped in […]
Why Turtles Cross Roads and How to Help
This is a perilous time of year for turtles. Year after year in late spring, female turtles haul themselves up out of their lakes, ponds, and wetlands to find a place to nest on land. Many of those turtles will cross roads in the process, and some will not make it to the other side. […]
On Winter Perseverance of our Cold-blooded Friends
Today marks the 180th day in a row I have had snow in my front yard. Most had melted as of mid-April and all that remains is what piled up under the edge of my barn roof, and that too shall pass in the coming weeks. Yet it was that point around mid-April that I […]
Trapped under the ice, but breathing just fine. How clean water is critical to Wood Turtle survival in the winter.
It’s hard to imagine an air-breathing vertebrate holding their breath for 130 days, but that is exactly what all fifteen of the Wood Turtles I tracked last year using radio telemetry have done since late November. And it’s not just air, they likely haven’t eaten in that time either. During brumation (akin to, but not […]