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Warning! If you\u2019re anything like\nme (a highly inquisitive yet highly distractible nature lover) you might soon\nfind yourself in a spiral of searches about the small and adorable, Spotted\nTurtle (Clemmys guttata<\/em>). After a series of searches myself, I soon\nlearned that this long lived species is only found along the eastern US and\nCanada and is listed as globally endangered on the International Union for\nConservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List. To find out more, I had a conversation\nwith Hunter Howell, a PhD student at\nthe University of Miami, about a paper on Spotted Turtles that he co-authored\ntitled \u201cLong-Term Turtle Declines: Protected Is a Verb, Not an Outcome\u201d along with\nresearchers Richard Legere Jr., David Holland, and Richard Seigel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Hunter\nhas had a lifelong love of working with turtles and got involved with this work\nafter researchers who conducted a historic population study of Spotted Turtles in\na protected area from 1987-1992 in Central Maryland asked for his teams help. The\nold researchers had historic data from this study but wanted to do something\nbigger for the hurting species\u2026so a collaboration was born! The new research\ngroup set out to conduct an almost identical study of the two studied\npopulations to see what had changed for the turtles in the past 30 years. Had\ntheir numbers grown? Shrank? Or was there something more they could find out\nabout these little testudines? After doing a mixture of visual encounter\nsurveys and trappings over four years, they found out an unsettling truth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even\nthough these turtle populations live in a designated protected area, they had\ndeclined by almost 50% over the past 30 years. That may seem like a long time\nfor animals fending for themselves against predators and in the elements, but\n30 years is only about one generation length for Spotted Turtles, just the same\nas us. That\u2019s not all: not only had their numbers dwindled but their age\ndistribution had changed as well leaving the population older and with less\nyounglings. This unbalanced age dynamic tells us that while the mature turtles\nare aging and eventually dying and leaving the population, the young ones\naren\u2019t entering in the first place. This creates somewhat of a generational gap\nand a less healthy overall population. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This\nspurred the research team to conduct a series of Population Viability Analyses\n(PVAs), a modeling tool conservation biologists frequently use to estimate the\nchance that a population will either persist or go extinct. They used both the\nhistoric and contemporary data and found the same trend: if business goes as\nusual, these populations that were booming not too long ago will be facing a\n93-94% chance of quasi-extinction in the next 150 years. Even if these declines\naren\u2019t as dramatic as the PVA suggests, there is still a definite threat of\nthese populations becoming non-viable\u2014they may still exist, but they will hit a\npoint of no return and shrink until they are locally extinct.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bottom line: These turtles need\nour help<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The biggest take away from\nHowell\u2019s research is that even seemingly healthy populations of Spotted Turtles\nliving in protected areas can be subject to serious declines. Turtles living in\na protected area may be shielded from certain forms of human caused mortality\nand habitat loss\/fragmentation, but they can still be affected by a slew of\nanthropogenic factors if in an unmanaged area. Road mortality, introduced\npredators, habitat succession, invasive species, and poaching have and continue\nto severely affect the survivorship or reproductive output in these turtles and\noccur in protected areas that have been set aside and left without an active\nmanagement plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Howell\nstressed that there is a need for a paradigm shift in turtle conservation from\nassuming a population is stable until proven it\u2019s declining to the opposite.\nBecause these turtles are so long-lived (up to 50-100 years) a population that\nis declining can persist for decades or even centuries without disappearing yet\nlose the window for replenishing its members. Basically: just because they\u2019re\nthere doesn\u2019t mean they have a viable population\u2026it means they are there in\nspite of not being viable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n For a\nlittle humor-based clarity: imagine you just bought a big tub of ice-cream (aka\nour turtle population) and are saving it as a treat for later. You know that it\nwill last for a very long time in the freezer and don\u2019t have any worries of it\ndisappearing or going bad quickly (long lived species). However, your roommate\nhas been slowly sneaking a few bites here and there unbeknownst to you, until\nyou pick up the carton one day and it\u2019s basically empty (anthropogenic factors\nchipping away at our population). From an outsider\u2019s perspective it looks like\na full tub of ice-cream but in reality, it is only a shell of its past state\n(seemingly okay population but has seriously declined). This is unfortunately\nthe case for many turtle species, they are on a long slow decline to\nextinction\u2026no crash, no sudden disappearance, but instead a slow extinction\nvortex that may go unnoticed before it\u2019s too late.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To make\nmatters worse, the effects of climate change and sea level rise are going to\nhave a significant effect on coastal Spotted Turtle communities. Howell spoke\nto his and other\u2019s research in Maryland and explained that we are on track for\na sea level rise that would extirpate the largest populations from state. This\nmeans that all of the sites from Howell\u2019s study and 4 others on eastern shore\nwill be completely underwater.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So What?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n These are a long-lived species\nand due to lack of recruitment in the younger age classes, this population is\nset to age out and disappear for good. Because this is a globally endangered\nspecies, conservation of any<\/em><\/strong> population is crucial especially for\nones seen in the study where management actions could potentially reverse the\ndirection of the trends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What\u2019s next? Is there hope?<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n The short answer is yes! But with\nconditions. The bright side to this pretty depressing reality is that there is<\/em><\/strong>\ntime to act because of how long this species lives and their use of a variety\nof habitats. Howell told me that we have decades to isolate factors of decline,\nbut that doesn\u2019t let us off the hook. There is the ongoing problem of getting\npeople to get to care about and act on climate change which will ultimately\nshape the success of this species and countless others globally. If sites like\nthe ones studied by Howell are actively managed and aren\u2019t left to their own\ndevices, there is a chance of saving the Spotted Turtle. <\/p>\n\n\n\n After finishing this research,\nHowell told me that he and his team have gone out and done a variety of things\nto switch from passive to active management. In 2017 they installed an exclusion\nfence near the site along a road where turtles were being struck to prevent\nunnecessary road mortality. Between 2018 and 2019, the area was continually\nmonitored for visual encounters of turtles and there have been no road kills! Howell\nexplained that by reducing road mortality alone, they could keep the population\nbasically stable or at least at a much, much slower decrease. They also did a\nseries of tree girdling to open the canopy, as well as invasive species removal\nto better create the preferred healthy, early successional habitat for our\nlittle Clemmys<\/em> companions. Howell\u2019s goal is to go back to the site in 2023\nand do a complete resampling of the turtles to see if any of these actions will\nhave helped increase their survival. However, because of their large\ngenerational gaps, he said that they may not be able to see a difference then, but\nhopefully by 2030.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What can we do?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Unfortunately, there\u2019s only a\nlimited number of hands-on things that the public can do to help this species.\nDue to Spotted Turtle\u2019s high attractiveness to poachers and fear of human\nencroachment\/disturbance of prime habitat, researchers like Howell can\u2019t give\nout specifics on locations of populations without risking having their numbers dive.\nBut you can help them by participating in road surveys! This is especially\nimportant at high density road crossings and during certain times of the year\nsuch as spring when they are most active and most likely to be moving between\nwetlands, to upland nesting sites, and or across roads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If road surveys aren\u2019t your\nthing, consider getting in touch with and donating to your local wildlife\nsociety or one that is conducting research for the Spotted Turtle. In this\nstudy\u2019s case it is the Susquehannock Wildlife Society (for Vermonters, the VT\nHerp Atlas!); any amount is meaningful towards assisting the many conservation\nprograms that they carry out including the continuation of research and active\nmanagement for threatened wildlife populations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lastly, we all need to keep the\nconversation going about climate change by educating ourselves and each other\non the ways it is and will continue to affect us, the ecosystems around us, and\nthe ones who don\u2019t have ways of speaking up. Informing ourselves about the\nseriousness of a changing climate can be extremely disheartening but can also\nbe powerful in the ways that information can be used to help others, including\nthe Spotted Turtle whose fate depends on our actions. We have a chance at\nsaving this species, so why don\u2019t we give it our all?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Where can I find this paper\/more\ninformation?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Paper: https:\/\/www.researchgate.net\/publication\/335806336_Long-Term_Turtle_Declines_Protected_Is_a_Verb_Not_an_Outcome<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Hunter\u2019s Website: https:\/\/hunterjhowell.wordpress.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Susquehannock Wildlife Society\nPage: http:\/\/www.susquehannockwildlife.org\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Spotted Turtle Info: https:\/\/www.iucnredlist.org\/species\/4968\/97411228<\/a> & https:\/\/www.vtherpatlas.org\/herp-species-in-vermont\/clemmys-guttata\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Rose Nixon These adorable little critters are disappearing, and they need our help! Warning! If you\u2019re anything like me (a highly inquisitive yet highly distractible nature lover) you might soon find yourself in a spiral of searches about the … Continue reading