STAR JOURNAL (Peoria, Illinois) 15 October 06 Snapping back (Jeff Lampe)
When the state decided to bring back the river otter a few years ago, public response was enthusiastic.
School children raised money to help fund releases of otters from Louisiana. Spectators turned out in force to see the Cajun critters wiggle out of cages and into various Illinois streams. And people all over the state became excited at the prospect of restoring river otters to the wild.
All in all it was a feel-good story, unless you happen to own a pond in which the now-abundant otters dine on fish.
But there's probably no chance the state's latest wildlife reintroduction program will generate as much public empathy. The critter in question this time is anything but a warm and fuzzy mammal.
Having succeeded with otters, the Department of Natural Resources will attempt to reintroduce alligator snapping turtles to Illinois' waters.
"For years I've thought the alligator snapping turtle was prime for a recovery program," said Joe Kath, DNR's endangered species project manager.
Nevertheless, restoring alligator snappers will be much more challenging than otters. The turtle project is actually more akin to ongoing efforts for the greater prairie chicken, whose fate is still uncertain despite a restoration that dates to the 1990s.
While the prairie chicken suffers from a lack of grasslands, alligator snapping turtles face a shortage of wetlands. That loss of habitat and over-harvest in the 1930s and 1950s for the soup business were major factors in the demise of these large turtles, which can reach weights of 155 pounds and live longer than 100 years.
Though never abundant in Illinois, alligator snappers once lived in southern Illinois swamps and along both the Illinois and Mississippi rivers. But the last recorded alligator snapper sighting in Illinois is from 1984. Extensive surveys in several promising wetlands this spring failed to turn up a single specimen.
"There may still be one or two (alligator snappers) out there somewhere, but if there was a viable breeding population, we would have determined that," Kath said. "If we want these animals back as part of the native fauna of Illinois, we need to release them."
Not surprisingly, that's a central part of the restoration plan, whose estimated $5,500 cost is being underwritten by the state's Wildlife Preservation Fund and some federal wildlife grants.
Any day now Kath will deliver 250 hatchling alligator snappers to Peoria's Glen Oak Zoo. Those tiny turtles hatched by a licensed supplier in Missouri represent the first in a series of year classes that will be raised and released under the 10- to 15-year restoration.
"We won't really know the outcome of this project, but maybe our grandchildren will," said Doug Holmes, a herpetologist at Glen Oak Zoo.
One reason the program could take so long is alligator snappers typically don't start reproducing until they are 14-17 years old. And small turtles are a food source for a wide variety of critters.
To give the little snappers a better chance, most hatchlings will spend the winter in warm tanks at Glen Oak. A few turtles may be put on display, though they will also be kept warm to prevent hibernation. Ideally the little snappers will grow to 3-4 inches long by next spring, when they will be released into eight sites in southern Illinois at a ratio of two females to each male.
Those sites, several of which are in the Cache River watershed, will serve as test locations.
"If we find they are successful, the plan calls for us to move northward up the Mississippi River to the Wisconsin border and at least part way up the Illinois River," Kath said. "That's the historic range of the animal in Illinois."
Even so, there's no guarantee of success. But if alligator snappers do make a comeback, think of the possibilities. Years from now our grandchildren might be able to see a prehistoric-looking turtle inhabiting the same backwaters as a playful otter.
http://www.pjstar.com/stories/101506/JEF_BB7V4SF7.068.shtml
Snapping back