This week Lake County had some quieter days trapping turtles on our field sites. However, we caught some of the most lovable turtles in our traps. Check out this juvenile Common snapping turtle and the Painted turtle twins.
But nothing will prepare you for what’s below… A super tiny, extremely adorable, and enchantingly precious baby snapper! This little guy was an incidental finding near one of my traps and it was such a delight to admire it. Just look at how cute it is!
Now, after this cuteness overload, I wanted to mention one of the factors that influence how we survey field sites to find the best locations to set traps in. You may or may not know that one of the main predators affecting aquatic turtle populations are raccoons. Raccoons are notorious for digging out turtle’s nests, eating turtle’s eggs and juvenile turtles, and pulling out traps to eat the bait. Because they are such clever creatures, it’s important for us to place our traps in places that will attract turtles but that will also be hard for raccoons to find. All this while also providing adequate water levels for turtles to remain as comfortable as possible while they are inside a trap. Setting traps truly ends up being a game of strategy and some luck!
Check out below the raccoon prints I found around our trapping perimeter! Luckily, no raccoons messed with our traps this week. Let’s hope it stays that way for the rest of the season.
Until next time!
By: Javelis Marín Castro (she/ella)
