We measured his burrow and it was only 5 inches deep which is rather shallow for Eastern Box Turtles because they can dig up to 2 feet deep. One reason BIN didn’t dig such a deep burrow might be the mild weather during the winter.

In August BIN weighed 390 grams and we expected him to weigh less after hibernation, but surprisingly he weighs 445 grams now. He must have accumulated a lot of fat reserves last fall before his hibernation!

We are excited to see when the other turtles will come out!

While these are cool looking animals that can cause quite a disturbance to your vegetation. They have a insatiable appetite for  foliage and sometimes people don’t even realize their yards are under siege because the little holes in the leaves could be caused by a number of things but when they come back the next day and almost the entire plant has been  relieved of its leaves there is nothing left to do because the inchworms have moved on in search of more food.

The most common place to find them now that they are not hiding is dangling above the ground suspended by a thread of silk that they make themselves. They will hang out in trees and on the ground for about 4-5 weeks until early June when they go below ground encased in a cocoon of silk and dirt until they emerge in early November as fully grown adults.

One interesting tidbit about them is that the male moths have a wingspan of about 1 inch but the female moths are wingless!

Enjoy Your Springtime!

Salmonella is a kind of bacteria that lives mainly in the intestines of its host and causes a range of nasty side effects such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, cramps, etc. In birds, however, the signs are harder to detect, mainly because we cannot ask them how they feel. An article from the USGS contains several good ways to keep salmonellosis at bay:

“To reduce the spread of the bacteria, clean feeders with a 10% bleach and water solution, rinse well and dry. Don’t put the feeders back up for one to two weeks, so that affected birds won’t be concentrated in one location. Rake up waste seeds/droppings below the feeders. Bird feeders with rough surfaces, cracks, or crevices are difficult to sanitize and should not be used. When using feeders, the location should be changed at regular intervals. Addition of more feeders may reduce crowding and minimize opportunity for interaction and contamination. Birdseed should be stored in rodent proof containers.” (to read the entire article, follow the link at the bottom of the page)

http://www.nwhc.usgs.gov/disease_information/other_diseases/salmonellosis.jsp

We are currently tracking five Box turtles via radio transmitters (see the transmitter in the picture?). They have been in partial-hibernation collectively since late November to early December, and since I started working in late December, I have had little trouble finding them. During hibernation, they can burrow up to 2 feet deep and can stay in hibernation for 3-4 months!  They are in partial-hibernation because the warmth of North Carolina’s lovely weather keeps some of them from completely shutting down all winter. Although, in most northern states Box turtles will completely hibernate all winter long.

One way we can pass the time as we wait for them to finish hibernating, is by having a contest!  Our contest is simple.  What date do you think the turtle named “CHO” will come out of hibernation?  To participate, send an email to turtle@piedmontwildlifecenter.org with your name and the date YOU think she will emerge. The winner will get a reptile and amphibians field guide! In case of a tie, we will have a drawing to determine the winner. Hurry and send in your guess to get a chance to win!

Want another way to become involved in our turtle project?
If you see a box turtle anywhere – on the road, in your yard, at a school – you can become a scientist and record data about the turtle and take pictures.   Our citizen-science box turtle project can be found HERE.

Thanks!

Entries must be received by Feb. 21st.  The staff will vote on her name and the winner will be announced by the end of February via the blog!

Here is some info about our Kingsnake:

Eastern Kingsnake (Lampropeltis getula getula) – The Kingsnake was donated to us in 2011.  She was previously being used as an educational animal, but was no longer needed by her owner.  The kingsnake’s owner donated her to Piedmont Wildlife Center and she has been a great addition after a little bit of socialization!

Kingsnakes are resistant to venom and they will even eat venomous snakes that are found in your yard, such as copperheads, cottonmouths and rattlesnakes!

Kingsnakes also frequently rattle their tails to mimic rattlesnakes.  This is one way they can defend themselves from unwelcome predators!

Piedmont Wildlife Center held a series of multiple tracking intensives, which culminated in a class titled, “How? The Art of Empathy.”  We used the tools we learned in our previous tracking classes in order to, as the name suggests, understand how an animal was feeling in order to obtain a complete picture and better track the animal.

At one point, we were empathizing with what it meant to be a prey animal, to understand their behavior.  Humans are not only predators but also tend to be cushioned from the demands nature places on other animals, so it can be difficult for us to really understand the choices animals make in response to their environment.

As vulnerable as prey animals are, they cannot constantly creep through the forest to avoid predation; it requires too much energy.  They must alternate periods of caution with moments of relaxation and deliberate when to be on guard.   Such a change can mean the difference between life and death.  Moreover, how can you convey the importance of these decisions to 8 adult humans traipsing through the woods on a Saturday morning?

We had reached our destination: the beginnings of a chain-link fence.  On the other side were a strip of trees that were thick at first and then thinned out.  Beyond that, I could hear the rush of cars on the interstate below us.  The instructor explained our exercise.  We had to pretend to be one of the individuals the Nazis targeted and avoid detection.  We were to sneak through the woods, then travel close to the treeline but within sight of the cars on the highway below us while avoiding detection.

During World War II, people had to avoid capture all the time.  They would crawl along roadsides and hide in ditches in highly trafficked areas, much as prey animals do in the woods.   “You didn’t know if the people you could meet on the roads were friend or foe,” the instructor said.  “They could be an informant or a Nazi.”

My heart started racing.  If anything could convey to me the gravity of choosing how to sneak through the landscape, it was empathizing with those seeking escape from the Nazis.  It was also a very real threat in the sense that it showed how human beings could fall prey to an ultimate predator.

At first, I took extra precautions not to make a sound, to stay low and move quickly.  Within a few minutes, I felt a strain in my abdomen.  If this were a real scenario, I would not be able to keep this up for hours and days on end.  I also mused that my yellow fireman-esque pants would command attention even through the trees and thought about how animals camouflage themselves.  I learned that, in the cover of the woods, one could walk upright, in a more natural, relaxed posture need not move as silently or keep a low profile.   I had to conserve energy and save it for the more exposed areas.

We finally reached an exposed part of a hill that sloped down to the highway.  Hugging the treeline, one person used his elbows to bellycrawl towards the end of our route.  Eventually, it was my turn.  I used my elbows to push myself forward and slithered on my belly.  What had seemed a short distance from the safety of the woods had stretched out.  Some of the people in front of me began to crawl.  I propped myself ever-so-slightly with my arms and within a matter of seconds— HONK! HOOOOooonnkkk!  A trucker had spotted me.  I had been caught.

The WWII scenario put me in the shoes- or perhaps paws would be a better word- of a prey animal.  My brief experience with their struggles and the mistakes I made would help me with my tracking.  And next time, I won’t be wearing bright yellow pants.

Moments like these teach us about the potential danger of teaching the birds to unlearn  their training.  We spend so many mornings, afternoons, and evenings training the owls about how to approach a gloved a human hand, i.e. to step onto the perch we provide as we literally sweep them off their feet.  The owls learn to feel safe at our approach.

Today was different.  Lily was on her perch in a barred owl box, which we use for transportation, but things were not calm as usual.  I could tell by Sara’s stance when she approached the box.  She opened the door, stuck her arm in, and grabbed Lily boldly by the legs.   It almost reminded me of something out of Looney Tunes.   When you’re administering a dose of much-needed medicine, you have to commit.  The goal was to minimize Lily from thrashing around and harming herself.  In cases like this, safety trumps the risk of undoing our careful training.

You also learn about the value of single-minded determination and preparedness.  While Sara held Lily by the legs and cradled the owl’s head with her other hand, I had an open bottle of eye drops and an open tube of antibiotic ointment ready.  I pried open Lily’s injured eyelid and added a few drops and let them be absorbed.  I then swapped out the drops for the ointment and applied a swath of it to her eye, which I had reopened.  Short,  sweet, and less than a minute.  It was painless, too, but one could not tell from Lily’s face.  Her eyes were closed like a long-suffering martyr, but she was better than new.  Before I knew it, the door to the owl cage was open and Lily summarily put back into her tiny chariot, ready to be carted back to her more spacious cage, a healthier version of herself.

-Margaux Escutin

To try and fix my bad luck and increase my chances of finding some sort of a reptile or amphibian I added another piece of plywood to the experiment.  I decided to prop a large piece of plywood up against one of the wood piles next to the Carriage House.  I let it sit for a couple of days before checking it for signs of life.  And sure enough, situated up next to the plywood was a big Fowler’s Toad.  “She” didn’t seem to care that I had just found her hiding place.  “She” just stayed put hoping that her camouflage would do the trick.  I gently grabbed her, brought her down to the cabin for identification, and took back to her hiding place.  Before I rested the plywood back on the wood pile, I snapped a picture or two.  The next time I checked the plywood the Fowler’s toad was still there.  But after checking that location today the toad was gone and there were no new creatures hanging out.  Just a side not she is in quotations because I made a guess at the toad gender based on its size.

I am hoping with an increased number of plywood pieces being used that my findings will increase as well.  There could also be some movement or addition of plywood pieces to the experiment to help increase my chances of finding something new and interesting.  I will keeping doing updates as things progress further.   

You may be thinking, “What exactly is herping?”  Well herping is the act of going out to the wild and looking for reptiles and amphibians.  This also includes road cruising, which is drive on the road (usually at night) to find reptiles and amphibians.  You can go to many different places including parks and even your own backyard.

“What do you need?”  The checklist for each herper varies from person to person.  So I will just list what I usually bring with me when I go herping.  First thing to consider is clothing.  The type of clothing I wear really depends on where I am doing my herping.  Most of the places I go usually aren’t full of briar patches so I go with khaki shorts.  When I am at a location full of briars, long pants like jeans work the best.  When it comes to footwear I usually go with some boots, but you can also wear some tennis shoes you don’t mind getting dirty or wet.  I always make sure that I have either a camera or my cell phone (that has a camera) with me in order to take pictures of anything I happen to come across.  I will always bring a field guide with me.  It comes in handy when you come across a species that you can’t identify.  That way you can figure out, on the spot, what species you’ve found.  I also bring with me a notebook, so that I can keep track of all the different species I’ve found on my trips.  The last thing I bring with me is my trusty snake hook.  It’s a handy tool to have when it comes to flipping rocks or handling snakes.

Some words of advice:  First and foremost have fun and enjoy yourself.  Make sure that you don’t handle anything that you don’t have the training to deal with or don’t know the species.  There are a number of species that are potentially dangerous to humans.  Handling the wrong animal could cause serious harm or even be lethal, so BE CAREFUL.

So I decide to try it out here in the park.  To start I grabbed two pieces of plywood and set them out in the park where I’ve seen either snakes, lizards, or frogs in the past.  I chose two pieces in varying size and shape to see if that had any effect on the outcome.  The first piece is square shaped and around 2 feet in length.  It is located behind the Piedmont Wildlife Center cabin, where several frogs and a Red Bellied Water Snake (Nerodia erythrogaster) have been spotted.  The second is a long rectangular piece about 6 feet in length.  It is located about 20 feet off one of the trails in the park, where a Black Ratsnake (Elaphe obsoleta obsoleta) as well as signs of prey have been spotted.  I continue to check the plywood every Tuesday and Thursday and see if anything is underneath the plywood.  If there is I make a note of it along with the temperature, weather, and time of day.  Then I log all the data into an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of the data.

So far I have checked each piece of plywood a total of seven times.  All that has been found so far is some wood lice and a wolf spider.  But I am keeping my spirits up and keeping my fingers crossed that in the very near future I find something slithering or hopping underneath it.