{"id":5759,"date":"2018-10-29T17:00:04","date_gmt":"2018-10-29T17:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orleansconservationtrust.org\/?p=5759"},"modified":"2019-05-10T17:03:15","modified_gmt":"2019-05-10T17:03:15","slug":"diamondback-terrapin-hatchling-release","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sandieboxx.com\/grapes\/diamondback-terrapin-hatchling-release\/","title":{"rendered":"Diamondback Terrapin Hatchling Release"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Orleans Conservation Trust Diamondback Terrapin Release\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_9Xy1VWLOp4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>On Saturday, September 7, OCT members gathered at the White\u2019s Lane Conservation Area to release northern diamondback terrapin hatchlings into the marshland along Henson\u2019s Cove. White\u2019s Lane is home to the Bob Prescott Turtle Gardens: human-made sandy areas designed to promote nesting of the threatened terrapins. Bob, past OCT president and director of the Mass Audubon\u2019s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary (WBWS) was on hand as usual to preside over the hatchling release. WBWS manages a program to protect terrapin nests and hatchlings with the aim of restoring the species\u2019 population. With the help of WBWS volunteers, a record 13 nests were protected here this season.<\/p>\n<p>Once abundant in salt marshes from Massachusetts to the Carolinas, the diamondback terrapin was prized for turtle soup and hunted to near-extinction before becoming a state-listed protected species. Terrapin eggs and hatchlings have many predators\u2014foxes, coyotes, raccoons, and a host of bird species. During the 60-to-90-day gestation of the vulnerable eggs, volunteers surround the nests with protective cages. Once the hatchlings emerge, they are collected from the enclosures, and when deemed viable for release they are carefully \u201cplanted\u201d in the tall grass surrounding the marsh. Perhaps as little as 1 to 2 percent of all hatchlings survive to adulthood\u2014so anything we can do to raise this number is important to the species\u2019 recovery.<\/p>\n<p>The \u201cplanting\u201d at White\u2019s Lane drew a big crowd. Attendees could hold the tiny terrapins in their hands, and Bob showed everyone how to gently place them in the marshland, spread over a wide area. The name of the game, as he noted, is getting as many hatchlings as possible into the wild, so releasing 18 was a great success. As the hatchling season came to an end in late September, we learned that a record total of 160 baby turtles were released at White\u2019s Lane this year. The nesting habitat there is especially critical because it is safely distant from roads and traffic. OCT is proud to be part of this restoration effort and thanks our members for their interest in this threatened species.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Jamie Demas<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Saturday, September 7, OCT members gathered at the White\u2019s Lane Conservation Area to release northern diamondback terrapin hatchlings into the marshland along Henson\u2019s Cove. White\u2019s Lane is home to the Bob Prescott Turtle Gardens: human-made sandy areas designed to promote nesting of the threatened terrapins. Bob, past OCT president and director of the Mass&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":5760,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandieboxx.com\/grapes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandieboxx.com\/grapes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandieboxx.com\/grapes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandieboxx.com\/grapes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandieboxx.com\/grapes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5759"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sandieboxx.com\/grapes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5759\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5761,"href":"https:\/\/sandieboxx.com\/grapes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5759\/revisions\/5761"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandieboxx.com\/grapes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandieboxx.com\/grapes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandieboxx.com\/grapes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandieboxx.com\/grapes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}