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Year of the Turtle News No Year of the Turtle News No. 11 November 2011 Basking in the Wonder of Turtles www.YearoftheTurtle.org Highway Construction Translocation Study Leads by Scott Farnsworth, Down a Different Road: Ranavirus Towson University A large six-lane toll road was being One of the study constructed in central Maryland, animals with a radio approximately 16 kilometers north transmitter glued to of Washington, DC, and the the side of its shell. project included trying to mitigate the impacts on wildlife including Eastern Box Turtles (Terrapene carolina carolina). This provided an excellent opportunity to study the efficacy of the methods that were being used for mitigation as well as being able to examine a particular type of translocation. When I started working on this project in 2008, I associated with translocations. What included both our study animals and knew that it was likely that some of we didn’t expect is the number of also other resident turtles that were the study animals would die from dead turtles that we saw. It became found incidentally during the study. the construction activities. We also a regular occurrence to find a shell They showed no signs of predation expected that translocated turtles or carcass, and many days we found or of being crushed by construction might have higher mortality rates more than one. or other vehicles. They were often due to the wide variety of problems The dead turtles we were finding Box Turtle Ranavirus continues on p. 5 Inside: page Ranavirus Infection in Aquatic Turtles Year of the Turtle Partners 2 by Debra L. Miller and Matthew J. Gray, Center for Wildlife Health, University Turtles in the News 3 of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN USA Ask the Experts 3 The more we learn about probably best known to affect box Citizen Science Projects 4 ranaviruses, the more worrisome turtles and other primarily terrestrial they become. Ranaviruses can be Mercury & Sea Turtle Nesting 7 turtles, with numerous mortality deadly to many taxa including events reported. However, aquatic Desert Tortoise Education 8 reptiles, amphibians, and fish, and it turtles also can be affected, but their Diamondback Terrapin Education 9 appears that interclass transmission susceptibility to ranaviruses remains Interview with Peter Paul Van Dijk 10 is possible. Currently, researchers unclear. are investigating the susceptibility Raleigh Aquatic Turtle Adoption 11 The lesions associated with of aquatic chelonians to ranaviruses ranaviral disease can be severe in Helping Baja Sea Turtles 12 and the parameters necessary for turtles. In terrestrial turtles, ranaviral Upcoming Meetings 13 transmission from one class to the lesions primarily include necrosis Turtle Talk! 14 next. For chelonians, ranaviruses are Aquatic Turtle Ranavirus continues on p. 5 “Behold the turtle. He makes progress when his neck is out.” — James Bryant Conant (1893-1978), educator and scientist Year of the Turtle News No. 11, November 2011, p. 2 Get Your November Calendar One of these things is not like the others... James Stuart photographed this lineup of six Western Painted Turtles and one Big Bend Slider on a spring day in New Mexico. Download this month’s Year of the Turtle Calendar to get a better look at this month’s winner and runner-up by downloading your calendar at parcplace. org/images/stories/YOT/YearoftheTurtleCalendarNovember. pdf There’s one more month to enter the 2011 Calendar Photo Contest! We are accepting entries until December 15. Give us your best shot! For more information and for entry details, please visit www.parcplace.org/news-a-events/224.html. Submit Your Turtle Art, Stories, and Poetry Do you have turtle art, stories, or poetry that could be highlighted during the Year of the Turtle? There’s still time to submit your turtle art (in jpg, tiff, or pdf format) or copies of your stories and poems via email toyearoftheturtle2011@ gmail.com! We are looking for submissions to include in the December issue of the newsletter as well as in final Year of the Turtle materials and outreach efforts, and we want your work to be part of it! Year of the Turtle Collaborating Partners The Year of the Turtle Planning Team is pleased to welcome the following organizations to our growing list of collaborating partners: The New York Department of Environmental Conservation’s Bureau of Wildlife is responsible for managing all the wildlife species in the State of New York. The Bureau had its origin in the Fisheries, Game and Forest Commission established by an act of the legislature April 25, 1895, at a time when many wildlife populations were threatened. Today the Bureau of Wildlife is involved in the restoration, recovery and range expansion of several amphibians and reptiles, including state endangered bog and mud turtles, and state threatened Blanding’s Turtle (Emydoidea blandingii), in order to stabilize and enhance populations for the enjoyment of future New Yorkers. www.dec.ny.gov/animals/277.html The Spanish Herpetological Association (AHE) has 25 years of expertise in conservation and research of Spanish amphibians and reptiles. AHE has developed a herpetological information server (SIARE; http://siare.herpetologica.es) that is a system for detecting and monitoring the loss of biodiversity in Spanish herpetofauna. Another current project is the coordination of the Spanish marine turtles tagging program (www.herpetologica. es/programas/programa-de-marcado-de-tortugas-marinas). AHE will coordinate the tagging program, and also the training courses for the tagging staff. www.herpetologica.es Our full list of partners can be found at http://parcplace.org/news-a-events/year-of-the-turtle/237.html. If you are interested in contributing to the Year of the Turtle efforts, please send an email to yearoftheturtle2011@gmail. com with a brief description of your organization and its efforts. Year of the Turtle News No. 11, November 2011, p. 3 of-the-Turtle-at-Wellfleet- Turtles in the News Library#axzz1cKLEjMhT. Some 100,000 turtles, including tagged turtles to help find the answers the critically endangered Northern to this mysterious virus. Find out more Nesting numbers for Leatherbacks River Terrapin and the Black Soft- on the research at www.abc.net.au/ and Green Sea Turtles in Florida shell Turtle, are sacrificed as part of the news/2011-10-20/scientists-research- have continued to improve this Hindu celebration of Kali Puja which deadly-turtle-herpes/3580424. year, while numbers have stabilized started recently in Bangladesh. Held for Loggerheads, according to once a year, and corresponding with Bob Prescott, director of counts conducted by the Florida the festival Diwali, sacrifices of turtles Massachusetts’ Audubon’s Wellfleet Wildlife Commission (FWC). Blair are made to Kali, the Hindu goddess Bay Wildlife Sanctuary, will be Witherington, research institute of power, demonstrating the fine line presenting a three-part seminar, scientist at FWC, attributes these that is often present between traditions “Celebrating the Year of the Turtle,” numbers “at least in part to major and turtle conservation. Warning: this at the Wellfleet Library starting on conservation efforts over the past story contains graphic images. Read November 3, and continuing on few decades.” Get the full story from more at www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ November 10 and 17. The series, The Palm Beach Post News at www. article-2054278/100-000-turtles- which kicks off with a presentation on palmbeachpost.com/news/sea- sacrificed-ritual-slaughter-celebrate- Box turtles, will educate participants turtle-nesting-numbers-have- Hindu-festival.html#ixzz1c67wbOqs. on the species that inhabit Cape biologists-encouraged-1905968. Cod, Massachusetts, and the efforts html. World Wildlife Fund and James to preserve them. Read more on Cook University researchers are the upcoming series and on several If you have items you would like teaming up to investigate a deadly Northeastern US turtle species at to contribute to Turtles in the News, virus that is affecting marine turtles www.wickedlocal.com/truro/ please send them for consideration to off the coast of Queensland, Australia. news/enviroment/x1769239937/ [email protected]. Researchers will monitor electronically Lecture-series-celebrates-Year- Ask the Experts! 2. Many of the pet turtles being produced on farms are Why don’t we take unwanted pet Red-eared Sliders and not ‘pure-bred’ Red-eared Sliders, Trachemys scripta elegans release them back into the wild in the states that they are (TSE), but are 50/50 hybrids with Trachemys scripta scripta native to? I am sure you would have to do health checks or back-crosses of hybrids with any kind of genetic mix- to make sure that we are not releasing sick ones that could up (crosses are exempt from the European Union ban on threaten healthy wild populations but isn’t there some TSE, so are intentionally produced in volumes on farms). alternative for all these misplaced pets? Can’t local Fish and Releasing such animals into native populations would Wildlife organizations collect them and ship them to the amount to genetic pollution of the native population. states they are native to and then have the Fish and Wildlife agencies there release them? 3. The process would be expensive (vet checks, staff handling time, shipping costs of large turtles according to Joanne Cloud humane transport rules, etc.) and entirely funded by either Vancouver, Washington the government, taxpayer, and/or charitable organizations. Joanne, Peter Paul van Dijk The concept of collecting unwanted pet Red-eared Sliders
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