Saturday, September 30, 2006
Final Score: 19-19
This past weekend we discarded the un-hatched turtle eggs, ending our turtle mid-wife experience.
In the end we hatched and released 18 snapping turtles and one map turtle. Two turtles died in the hatching process, one map and one snapper. The rest of the eggs are now composting.
The map turtle eggs did noticeably worse than the snapping turtles. Besides not hatching as well, they were more obviously collapsing and not progressing from an early date. Maybe they did not like the moist peat moss environment. Maybe they were more delicate and did not take well to our early temperature fluctuations. Maybe this is one reason why there are more snapping turtles than map turtles.
We were unable to find anyone with good advice on hatching map turtles which also did not help. Most said just do the same as with the snappers. We probably need a better plan.
Overall we are happy with the results. 50% into the water, even if one was eaten promptly, seemed like a better result than likely if left alone. But we must remember that this is an illegal activity, not to be tried at home. At the same time, it helped more turtles survive and it was a good bit of P.R. on the importance of turtles.
We will now wonder, every time we rescue a turtle on the road, if it started in our living room: a nice thought. Thanks for joining in our journey, Brianna and Ross.
ps. We will post some pictures of the baby turtles over the next few days - saty tuned.
In the end we hatched and released 18 snapping turtles and one map turtle. Two turtles died in the hatching process, one map and one snapper. The rest of the eggs are now composting.
The map turtle eggs did noticeably worse than the snapping turtles. Besides not hatching as well, they were more obviously collapsing and not progressing from an early date. Maybe they did not like the moist peat moss environment. Maybe they were more delicate and did not take well to our early temperature fluctuations. Maybe this is one reason why there are more snapping turtles than map turtles.
We were unable to find anyone with good advice on hatching map turtles which also did not help. Most said just do the same as with the snappers. We probably need a better plan.
Overall we are happy with the results. 50% into the water, even if one was eaten promptly, seemed like a better result than likely if left alone. But we must remember that this is an illegal activity, not to be tried at home. At the same time, it helped more turtles survive and it was a good bit of P.R. on the importance of turtles.
We will now wonder, every time we rescue a turtle on the road, if it started in our living room: a nice thought. Thanks for joining in our journey, Brianna and Ross.
ps. We will post some pictures of the baby turtles over the next few days - saty tuned.
