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Turtles to Test Wireless Network
University of Massachusetts biologist Mike Jones uses duct tape to secure a GPS beacon to ithe back of a 40-pound snapping turtle for research purposes on June 25, 2007 in Deerfield, Mass. "We're trying to get a better idea of their range, the routes they take and where they hibernate," said Jones, who is working on a doctoral degree in biology. "If you have that information for a good number of turtles, you can predict what their patterns will be for the next 50 years or so." (AP/Nathan K. Martin)
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Turtles to Test Wireless Network
The article is not as awesome as the headline claims. I was expecting these turtles to be wearing tiny radio towers on their backs to better my cell phone service.
#1 - Wed Jul 4, 2007 1:42 PM EDT:>
But I bet if you only how critical these studies are for their long-term survival, you'd be really impressed by this experiment (since turtles live so long, and their lifetimes span that of several scientist's careers making them really hard to study, innovations like this one are almost as neat as wee radio towers :>)
Like sea turtles, very, very few young turtles (and tortoises) survive to reproduce themselves, which makes survival of juveniles and adults in particular absolutely necessary (so that they can produce enough hatchlings over their long lifetimes for one of their offspring to beat those odds).
A couple of studies show a loss of as little as 2-5% of adult turtles will send that population into a gradual and steady decline if other environmental stressors remain constant. For most turtle species, those adults are worth their weight in gold in terms of their populations' long term survival, esp. as their habitat gets bisected by roads.
If you see any turtle crossing the road, make sure it's safe for you first and move it across *in the direction it was headed*. Otherwise they'll just turn right around after you've left - they're headed somewhere (which is the big reason not to move them elsewhere - they have home ranges). For snappers I recommend nudging them across with a flat surface like a board -
Also, if you pick snappers up by the tail, you'll dislocate their vertebrae and hurt them. The trick is to hold them at the back of the shell beside the tail with their belly pointed towards you (their necks can't stretch far beneath them as above them since they are 'sit-on-the-bottom-and-eat-what-swims-above-me' feeders. Be careful of their jaws anyway and carry them close to the ground - if you have to let go, they won't have far to fall :}
By the way, if you find a turtle, please don't make it a pet for the same 'worth their weight in gold' reason. Esp. for my friends with kids, I recommend keeping it for a week, learning all about it and then letting it go where you found it.
It's good to keep kids hands on with nature and it brings their appreciation of what's out there full circle. If kids don't get interested about their local wildlife, forget bisecting roads, no wildlife including turtles will have sheltering habitat in time. You should see the demographic projections for the DC Metro area for the next 10 & 20 years! Imagine what will happen after us.
#2 - Wed Jul 4, 2007 6:09 PM EDTYou're in Easy Mode. If you prefer, you can use XHTML Mode instead. |
