Endangered reptile spotted in Shubenacadie River
A group that works to conserve leatherback sea turtles was hoping for the best Friday after one of the endangered reptiles was spotted on a mud flat on the Shubenacadie River — more than 20 kilometres inland from the Cobequid Bay.
The turtle was high and dry on the mud in the tidal, freshwater river for a few hours until the tide came back in and it apparently swam away.
"People haven't seen it since," Kathleen Martin, executive director of the Halifax-based Canadian Sea Turtle Network, said in a phone interview Friday night.
"Unless the turtle is dead or stranded, we're going to leave it alone. We want the animal to keep swimming, hopefully back out to the sea."
Martin said leatherback turtles flock to the waters off Nova Scotia this time of year to feed on jellyfish but don't come ashore.
"We had another turtle that stranded on mud flats near Rissers Beach on the South Shore in 2008," she said.
"That turtle, we finally got back out to sea, and then it stranded a couple of days later, dead. When we did a necropsy on it, it turned out it had a type of meningitis.
"I don't know what's going on with this particular turtle. ... They are marine reptiles. They live in salt water. They should never be in the Shubenacadie River. That's not a place where a leatherback turtle would normally be found at all."
Martin said leatherback turtles seen at sea off Nova Scotia are usually "big and fat" from feasting on jellyfish.
Judging from a photo she saw, she said the turtle that was stranded Friday in Rines Creek, near Shubenacadie, was "pretty thin."
"It's what we could call highly compromised," Martin said. "It's not in good condition."
The Canadian Sea Turtle Network is a non-profit group of scientists, commercial fishermen and coastal residents dedicated to protecting endangered sea turtles.
Martin urged anyone who sees the turtle to contact the network at 1-888-729-4667.
"If it does strand or it does die, we're going to go out," she said. "We have a wonderful team that's ready to go, including a wildlife veterinarian and expert from California who, serendipitously, happens to be up here right now working with us at our field site in northern Cape Breton.
"She was saying to us that this is going to be an unpredictable turtle. We can't say what's going to happen to it, or where it's going or how long it will live, because this is such erratic behaviour.
"This is not how they should behave at all."
Reptile??
Submitted by Runesword on August 18, 2012 - 7:57am.
When did turtles become reptiles??
Always Were
Submitted by gregnb on August 18, 2012 - 9:27am.
I thought they were always reptiles.
Turtles, turtles rah, rah, rah...
Submitted by Tank on August 18, 2012 - 8:51am.
These majestic creatures need our protection, unfortunately, they need protection from us. I had a close encounter with a Pilot Whale one time who appeared Hell bent on beaching himself. After an hour or so in the water wearing a wet suit (December), often within touching distance, he/she swam out to sea, what an experience!
When did they become reptile's ???
Submitted by ohwell on August 18, 2012 - 8:44am.
Oh about 3 million year's ago , I'm guessing ?
Well not really reptiles per say. ~~
Submitted by FERG on August 18, 2012 - 8:46am.
More like Kingdom: Animalia, Phylum: Chordata, Class: Reptilia, (unranked): incertae sedis, Order: Testudines. Mere technicality.....
LOL sorry I had ta.
Turtle ....reptile?? Yes
Submitted by greencrow on August 18, 2012 - 8:50am.
When God created them..
Turtles are reptiles.
Reptiles include turtles, crocodilians, lizards, snakes and tuatara (found only in New Zealand).
Reptiles were the world's first truly terrestrial vertebrates. All reptiles have scaly skin that can withstand dessication and lay eggs with hard shells, therefore they are not tied to the water like their relatives, the amphibians. Since they can live on land, they also have an expanded lung system.
Amphibians consist of three groups of vertebrates: frogs, salamanders and caecilians (found in the tropics only). Amphibians have smooth, scaleless skin which is permeable to water. Water can evaporate easily from the skin, and an amphibian can dry up and die in a few hours if it does not have access to water. Thus amphibians tend to be active at times when evaporation is minimized: at night and when it rains.
However, this same skin permeability makes it possible for amphibians to obtain moisture from sources besides pools of water. This means that amphibians can live in very dry climates, like deserts, and when the dry season arrives, they just burrow underground and pull in moisture from the surrounding soil. Despite this, the amphibian's tie to water remains: their eggs must be laid in water in order to survive.
Source(s):
http://www.redpath-museum.mcgill.ca/Qbp/…
Hope
Submitted by law on August 18, 2012 - 9:13am.
Hope it makes it.
Runesword, A cold-blooded vertebrate animal of a class (Reptilia) that includes snakes, lizards, crocodiles, turtles, and tortoises.
Google before posting wat you think you know!
Submitted by oneveryluckyman on August 18, 2012 - 9:18am.
The leatherback turtle (Dermochelys coriacea), sometimes called the lute turtle, is the largest of all living sea turtles and the fourth largest modern REPTILE behind three crocodilians.[4][5] It is the only living species in the genus Dermochelys. It can easily be differentiated from other modern sea turtles by its lack of a bony shell. Instead, its carapace is covered by skin and oily flesh. Dermochelys coriacea is the only extant member of the family Dermochelyidae.
-Wikipedia-
Good luck Mr or Ms Turtle. Safe Journey. Avoid soup pots!