BILLINGS GAZETTE (Montana) 27 July 06 State biologists tracking turtles

Miles City: Biologists with the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks are trapping soft-shelled turtles in the drainages of the Yellowstone and Missouri rivers as party of a five-year study on the warm-water carnivores.

The traps are harmless hoop nets that the turtles can swim into but not out of, the agency said in a news release. The traps are baited with pieces of dead fish.

The soft-shell turtle population appears to be healthy, FWP said. Biologists from several agencies are trying to gather enough information to determine their relative abundance, and which sections of the Missouri and Yellowstone rivers support a population of the turtles.

FWP is spearheading the effort using money from the State Wildlife Grants program administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Soft-shell turtles are fast swimmers with shells composed mostly of skin. There are four families and 50 species worldwide.
State biologists tracking turtles

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