DIAMOND-BACKED TERRAPINS

      During the full moon each May, many, many thousands of horseshoe crabs come ashore on sandy beaches in backwaters off the Atlantic Ocean, including Delaware and Chesapeake Bays, to spawn billions of eggs in the sand.  Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of north-bound shorebirds halt their migrations to gorge on that tremendous bounty of horseshoe crab eggs.  And several diamond-backed terrapins come close to those same beaches, perhaps to see what the excitement is about.  One can see the turtles poking their heads out of the brackish water so they can breathe and look around. 

     Amusingly, several of those terrapins climb on the horseshoe crabs in the shallows.  Being devout sun-bathers, those turtles are there to bask in the sunlight, which kills skin parasites and warms the cold-blooded turtles enough so they can hunt food.  

     Diamond-backed terrapins are the only North American turtles that live in brackish harbors, estuaries and saltmarsh channels along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts of the United States.  There they consume snails, mussels, clams, marine worms, crustaceans and fish.  In turn, some of their eggs are eaten by striped skunks and raccoons that dig them up.  And some newly-hatched diamond-backs are consumed by gulls, herons, rails, skunks, coons, mink and other saltmarsh predators. 

     Terrapins are a handsome species, in a camouflaged way.  The upper shells of adult females are up to ten inches long.  Adult males are smaller.  And all terrapins, young and older, are light-gray all over, with dark circles on their upper shells and black dots on their heads, necks and legs. 

     Interestingly, the top shells of all species of turtles are their backbones and ribs all grown together.  Their bottom shells are their greatly enlarged sternum bones. 

     I've seen many terrapins in the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal in Delaware and Maryland, the Wetlands Institute Saltmarsh Refuge at Stone Harbor New Jersey and at the Misipilion Refuge along Delaware Bay in Delaware.  Workers at the Wetlands Institute examine female terrapins killed on roads for eggs in them that are still viable.  Those turtles were crossing roads from salt marshes to find sandy soil suitable for laying their eggs.  But, instead, they found death.  However, some of the eggs in those killed female terrapins are still intact.  They are taken from the dead females, incubated at a higher temperature to produce female hatchlings, and fed and sheltered at the Institute until they are big enough to avoid most predators.  Then they are released into the Wetlands Institute's saltmarsh to finish growing up and reproducing.  

     Female terrapins, like all female turtles, use their back legs to dig holes in sand or loose soil.  Their sharp claws make short work of the digging.  And when the nursery is ready, each female turtle drops her eggs into it and covers them with sand or soil with her hind legs.

     Diamond-backed terrapins are attractive, interesting turtles of brackish water.  They are exciting to see in ocean backwaters.           

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