In some regions of Vermont almost all the wood turtles we find are pretty old. We're not seeing their young grow up and join the population as we would expect. Maybe there's a problem with their nests or with the survival of the young. The Orianne Society, a non-profit organization "dedicated to the conservation of reptiles, amphibians and the ecosystems they inhabit," is currently researching and studying these wood turtles in an effort to conserve their numbers.
In this month's episode of Outdoor Radio, Kent McFarland and Sara Zahendra join Kiley Briggs and Melanie Lohrer from the Orianne Society, as they follow female wood turtles to their nests in the Vermont sand. Researchers will sometimes attach a spool of fine string to the turtles to follow their movments and discover where they might have buried their eggs.
Learn how all Vermont turtles survive the cold winters and what makes the wood turtle different. Discover how to identify wood turtles, with their distinct colors and shell-shapes, tell their age by the pattern on their shell and recognize their habitats along winding streams.
Visit these links to learn more:
- Learn more about Wood Turtles from The Orianne Society and the Vermont Reptile and Amphibian Atlas.
- Help biologists by adding your Wood Turtle sightings to the Vermont Atlas of Life on iNaturalist and see great photos from others too.
- Watch a Wood Turtle wander and then lay eggs in a video from a game camera that Kiley set up to monitor an area last week.
Outdoor Radio is produced in collaboration with the Vermont Center For Ecostudies.
