Wellfleet Bay Sanctuary

Long, Strange Terrapin Season

Diamondback terrapin season has officially come to a close with the water temperature dropping and the turtles starting to go into hibernation. At the Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary, we had 59 total nests this year with 29 of them found and protected before skunks and raccoons could get to the eggs. Once hatching was underway, we were pleasantly surprised to find an additional 2 nests that had been missed by staff, volunteers, and the predators, bringing our nest total to 31! In addition to the terrapin nests, we also had 1 protected box turtle nest and 5 protected painted turtle nests.

We had a 68% success rate this year. No hatchlings or eggs were lost to maggots and only one to ants, but 14% were lost to root depredation, likely because of all the rain we had in June. We also lost 4 nests to a fox that figured out how to get under the predator excluders. The biggest loss was eggs that just didn't develop (32%), the vast majority of which were in nests that were laid in the last 10 days of the season. Despite everything, nearly 300 hatchlings were released back at the edge of the sanctuary's salt marshes.

This season the first nest was laid on June 13th and the last on July 27th, making this year's season 20 days longer than last year's! The first nest to emerge was on Labor Day after 86 days of incubation, which just shows how much the cool and rainy June affected the season when considering that the first nest last year emerged after 68 days.

So another successful terrapin season is now behind us, and it couldn't have been accomplished without our dedicated volunteers. If you would like to help us with this work next season, contact our volunteer coordinator, Cynthia Franklin.

Emily Goczalk