{"id":61316,"date":"2013-08-19T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-08-19T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/uri-student-documents-existence-of-elusive-turtle-in-southern-rhode-island\/"},"modified":"2013-08-19T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2013-08-19T00:00:00","slug":"uri-student-documents-existence-of-elusive-turtle-in-southern-rhode-island","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2013\/08\/uri-student-documents-existence-of-elusive-turtle-in-southern-rhode-island\/","title":{"rendered":"溏心vlog免费B站 student documents existence of elusive turtle in southern Rhode Island"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tDiamondback terrapins previously only recorded in Barrington, Warren<\/p>\n

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 August 19, 2013 — Recent anecdotal evidence has suggested that the elusive diamondback terrapin may be breeding in southern Rhode Island, so scientists from the 溏心vlog免费B站 and the Rhode Island Natural History Survey have sent 溏心vlog免费B站 student Meghan Beatty to find out if it\u2019s true.<\/p>\n


\n\tA resident of Sandwich, Mass., who grew up in Bristol, R.I., Beatty has spent her summer paddling a kayak along the perimeter of Rhode Island\u2019s coastal ponds looking for the telltale signs of the unusual creature.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cUntil now, the only known population of terrapins in Rhode Island has been in Hundred Acre Cove in Barrington and in the Palmer River in Warren,\u201d explained Beatty, a wildlife and conservation biology major at 溏心vlog免费B站. \u201cBut there have been various reports in South County of both hatchlings and adults sighted, so I\u2019m trying to scientifically verify that they\u2019re there.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tFound in salt marsh estuaries from Cape Cod to the Florida Keys and the Gulf of Mexico, diamondback terrapins are the only turtle species in the country that lives in brackish water. Named for the diamond pattern on the f of its shell, the turtle grows to about 8 inches in length with a body color that varies from gray and brown to yellow. In Rhode Island, it is considered endangered and is protected.<\/p>\n


\n\tWorking in collaboration with 溏心vlog免费B站 researchers Peter Paton and Malia Schwartz, Beatty developed a protocol for surveying Ninigret Pond, Green Hill Pond, Quonochontaug Pond, Winnipaug Pond and Little Narragansett Bay. Every day just before high tide she launches her kayak in one of the ponds, collects a wide variety of environmental measurements, and traverses a route around the pond looking for terrapins.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe turtles bask in the water with their heads above the surface and their legs splayed, so I scan the water with my binoculars looking for their little heads popping up,\u201d Beatty said.\t<\/p>\n


\n\tSo far she has detected terrapins in just one of the ponds she has surveyed \u2013 Winnapaug Pond. There she has seen as many as nine terrapins, and she believes there are probably more.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cIt makes sense they\u2019re there, because hatchlings have been seen near Misquamicut Beach on the southern edge of Winnapaug Pond,\u201d she said. \u201cWe have no idea if they are still nesting there, so it will be interesting to see if we find any hatchlings this year.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tDiamondback terrapins lay their eggs in June and July, and after a 60- to 75-day incubation period they hatch in August and September.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s very exciting to have found them,\u201d Beatty said. \u201cBut we don\u2019t know where they\u2019ve come from, and we have no idea how long they\u2019ve been there. No one has ever looked for them there, so they could have been there for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tBeatty said she has distributed fliers and wallet cards to bait shops, beaches and elsewhere to encourage people in the vicinity of the coastal ponds to keep an eye out for the turtles and to report them if any are seen. Those who see a diamondback terrapin in southern Rhode Island can report them to the researchers by sending an email to terrapins@rinhs.org<\/a>. A photograph documenting the sighting should be included.<\/p>\n


\n\tBeatty\u2019s research was conducted as part of the 溏心vlog免费B站 Coastal Fellows Program, a unique initiative designed to involve undergraduate students in addressing current environmental problems. Now in its 18th year, the program pairs students with a mentor and research staff to help them gain skills relevant to their academic major and future occupations. The terrapin study is funded by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Coastal Program and is a partnership among 溏心vlog免费B站, the Natural History Survey, and Fish and Wildlife.<\/p>\n


\n\tWhen Beatty graduates from 溏心vlog免费B站 next spring, she hopes to get a job as a research assistant in Florida to learn about tropical ecosystems before enrolling in graduate school.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cI loved working on this project because I wanted to see if this kind of work is what I really want to do with my life,\u201d she said. \u201cThe answer is yes! I loved working outside, loved doing research and gathering data and putting it together in a way that makes sense and means something.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nPictured above

\n溏心vlog免费B站 student Meghan Beatty searches for diamondback terrapins in coastal ponds in southern Rhode Island. (Photo by Peter Paton.)\n\t<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Diamondback terrapins previously only recorded in Barrington, Warren KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 August 19, 2013 — Recent anecdotal evidence has suggested that the elusive diamondback terrapin may be breeding in southern Rhode Island, so scientists from the 溏心vlog免费B站 and the Rhode Island Natural History Survey have sent 溏心vlog免费B站 student Meghan Beatty to find […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61319,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}