For a while now I’ve been trying to learn my turtles. There aren’t too many species to see here, but they all look so similar to me it’s hard to tell them apart. But these Peninsula Cooters are frequently seen at Mead Gardens, and they often sit in beautiful settings. […]
Tag: turtle
A Walk in Central Park
Last week I led a nature walk in Central Park for the American Museum of Natural History’s Membership Department. Even though I got rained on twice, there was a lot to see. Here are some of the wild creatures that were in the park on Wednesday. Turtles were basking in The Lake. Red-eared sliders are […]
China’s boom may mean doom for turtles
For thousands of years turtles have been used in Chinese traditional medicine to treat a wide variety of ailments and diseases. Originally published in the journal Radiata and recently republished HerpDigest David S. Lee and Liao Shi Kun write, “[In Chinese culture] turtles are symbolic of long life, personal wealth, fertility, strength, and happy households.” […]
Photos: mass turtle hatching produces over 200,000 babies
Biologists recently documented one of nature’s least-known, big events. On the banks of the Purus River in the Brazilian Amazon, researchers witnessed the mass-hatching of an estimated 210,000 giant South American river turtles (Podocnemis expansa). The giant South American river turtle, or Arrau, is the world’s largest side-necked turtle and can grow up to 80 […]
Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge
Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge is only 25 miles from New York City in Vernon, New Jersey. It’s a great place for a day of strolling and wildlife spotting.There are duck blinds,roads and trails, wildflower fields, and boardwalks over marshes. Wood ducks and eastern bluebirds are some of the wildlife rock stars that breed in […]
Florida officer saves nearly 100 baby sea turtles from hotel parking lot
A Florida police officer saved nearly 100 baby sea turtles when he gathered the newly hatched creatures from a hotel parking lot and street and released them into the Gulf of Mexico. Sarasota officer Derek Conley was on patrol at 1am Saturday when he saw sea turtle hatchlings crawling toward the front door of the […]
Leatherback sea turtles suffer 78 percent decline at critical nesting sites in Pacific
The world’s largest sea turtle, the leatherback (Dermochelys coriacea), is vanishing from its most important nesting sites in the western Pacific, according to a new study in Ecosphere. Scientists found that leatherback turtle nests have dropped by 78 percent in less than 30 years in the Bird’s Head Peninsula on the island of New Guinea. […]