Researchers study turtle patterns
5/25/2012
By NIKKI WILEY The Brunswick NewsIt’s high tide on Jekyll Island and Brian Crawford is on the Downing Musgrove Causeway on Thursday looking for diamond terrapin turtles attempting to cross the dangerous roadway.When he spots one, he abruptly pulls the Georgia Sea Turtle Center van safely off the road and hops out along with AmeriCorps volunteer Dan Quinn.With gloved hands, the duo race to a terrapin sitting still in the middle of the road. They are too late. The turtle is dead. But there may be hope for the reptile’s progeny. An egg shell is lying next to her on the causeway.“I think she’s got an egg inside of her,” Crawford says as Quinn takes the turtle’s temperature with an infrared thermometer.
It’s all part of Crawford’s doctoral work being completed alongside Georgia Sea Turtle Center researchers to understand the impacts of human activity and traffic patterns on nesting turtles.Crawford and Quinn bag the turtle and take her to the Sea Turtle Center, where they will later attempt to produce a hatchling from the egg.“Even if she’s dead, we’ll extract the eggs and incubate them at the center,” said Michelle Kaylor, rehabilitation coordinator at the center.All information about the turtle is recorded, including position, temperature and the temperature of the paved surface of the causeway. The data will enable researchers to look back after the turtle hatches at the conditions in which the egg was found.Occasionally, deceased turtles that sit on the roadway for extended periods of time can have a tough time producing eggs because temperatures can cause the eggs to become non-viable.A student at the University of Georgia’s Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, Crawford has returned to the center for his doctoral study after working with researchers in 2007 while completing his master’s degree. Now, he hopes to find out what kind of impacts humans and heavy traffic can have on the turtles.Crawford says most residents and visitors to Jekyll Island are understanding and pull over to help turtles cross the road, but there is still a long way to go in educating the public on the importance of conservation.“It’s not just a Georgia problem,” Crawford said. “Terrapins are all over the Atlantic.”Help out* If you see an injured turtle call 635-4444 or take it to the Georgia Sea Turtle Center on Jekyll Island.* If you see a turtle attempting to cross a roadway, you can assist it by helping it cross in the direction in which it was headed.