Andrea ColtonViews:
Monday
Ben, Kira (our new technician), and I started this week at one of two long-term Spotted Turtle monitoring sites in Georgia. I always enjoy trapping at these sites because not only am I guaranteed to catch turtles, I’m also guaranteed trapping locations with good water. The Orianne Society has been trapping this site for a decade, so we already know the best spots to hit!
While Ben helped Kira get started with the few traps we initially carried out, I headed back to the truck to get the rest. I am vehemently opposed to making multiple trips and would rather struggle through vines weighed down with all my traps—which is exactly what I did.
I clipped ten Promar traps to my backpack, carried two large crab traps (plus multiple tomato stakes), packed my bag full of bait cans, and headed back toward the wetland. The Promar traps, predictably, got snagged on nearly every branch or twig I passed, so it was slow going—but at least Ben and Kira were setting the traps we already had out!
That’s when I remembered I had all the bait, so they were actually waiting for my slow progression toward them instead…
Pro tip: Always double-check who’s carrying the bait!
Luckily, the site is small, so even with delays, it didn’t take long to get all our traps out.
Tuesday
I started my day driving to the Toyota dealership. Ben and I are constantly on the road during survey season, which puts a lot of wear and tear on our trucks. Unfortunately, Ben’s engine decided to give out for the week, so I picked him up before heading to our site.
Once there, we were joined by three collaborators from Dr. Tom Akre’s lab at the Smithsonian, our northernmost partner on the multi-state Spotted Turtle grant. Today’s goals were to check traps and learn how to take environmental DNA (eDNA) samples.
We visited three locations throughout the wetland and selected spots likely to have turtle presence. The eDNA sampling involved attaching three filters to a tripod with an extending arm. Once lowered into the water, a backpack unit pulled water through the filters, capturing DNA particles.
This technique will hopefully help us detect Spotted Turtle presence and guide our survey efforts.
Wednesday
What I thought would be a quick trap check turned into an all-day adventure.
While rain is great for turtle activity, it’s terrible for vehicles on muddy roads. Emma, our Georgia Spotted Turtle technician, called to say her car had slid into a ditch on a muddy road. While she searched for a tow, the rest of us continued checking traps.
By early afternoon, she still hadn’t found help, so we made the 1 hour and 40-minute drive to rescue her. On the way, we stopped at Lowe’s to grab a thin piece of lumber and sandpaper. Using duct tape, we created a makeshift tire track.
When we arrived, we were amazed at how far she had made it before getting stuck. We gathered woody debris and pine needles to build a traction path in the ditch. With some coordinated pushing, the plan actually worked!
Fieldwork often takes place far from paved roads—mishaps like this are common and inevitable.
Thursday
Today it was just Kira and me checking traps at our long-term site.
In addition to routine monitoring, we’re now targeting female turtles to fit with transmitters. Once outfitted, Kira will track them to find nesting sites and collect hatchling data.
We were lucky to catch one female large enough for a transmitter! We sat nearby while the epoxy dried. Since epoxy typically dries white, we color it black with a permanent marker to help the turtle stay camouflaged.
Meanwhile, Emma was rewarded with three new Spotted Turtles at a previously undocumented site. She fitted all three with transmitters, and hopefully their movements will lead us to even more turtles.
Later, Kira and I explored other wetlands on the property where recent sightings had occurred. Strangely, these weren’t places I’d consider ideal Spotted Turtle habitat—just another reminder of how much we still have to learn!
Friday
A lighter day for Kira and me. Typically, we don’t visually search for turtles on trap-pull days—it’s tough to do with arms full of traps, poles, and bags of stinky sardine cans.
Since this site will continue to be trapped in the search for females, we didn’t need to haul the traps out. We simply stashed them on solid ground near the water.
We caught another large female, so we waited on hummocks of grass for the epoxy to dry. The short day gave me plenty of time to drive home and prep for next week’s craziness—fieldwork in both Florida and Georgia, plus a conference in Alabama!
Stay tuned for more updates from the field as we continue our search for Spotted Turtles across the Southeast! Learn more about Spotted Turtles, one of our priority species.
