We should probably thank the author for this article - maybe the
publisher will be willing to publish more articles like this if they get feedback. FYI, like so many other newspaper articles, there is a correction - "anyone wanting to take more than one box turtle from the wild must have a permit". A person is required to have a permit if a person has more than one eastern box turtle, of which ONLY ONE may have been taken from the wild in MD. You cannot legally take two from the wild in MD.
Katrina
http://news.mywebpal.com/news_tool_v2.cfm?pnpid=3D805&show=3Darchivedetails=
&ArchiveID=3D1224488&om=3D1
Developer's project not slowed by box turtles
10/26/06
By Marcia Ames
The Promenade hotel-retail-restaurant project Steve Whalen is planning for Catonsville should have no objection from the Mid-Atlantic Turtle and Tortoise Society.
With his permission, representatives of the Catonsville-based society and a turtle-hunting dog have examined the development site off Wilkens Avenue and the Beltway and declared it turtle free.
"This is a good day for turtles, so if we're not finding any, you can be sure," Susan Hagood said Oct. 18, after calling off her dog, Drew.
She noted a clear sky and temperature readings above 50 degrees were warm enough for the reptiles to move around and leave a trail.
Society president Sandy Barnett praised Whalen for allowing the
search-and-rescue mission, which she suspects many people in his line
of work would have refused.
Instead, he went a step further by offering to sponsor the turtle
relocation project she proposed, which called for several hundred
dollars in radio tracking equipment.
"It sets a good example for other developers," she said.
Development poses a major threat to Maryland's box turtle population, which is declining but not yet listed as endangered, according to Barnett, who recently retired as senior herpetologist at the National Aquarium in Baltimore.
In Maryland, anyone wanting to take more than one box turtle from the wild must have a permit, although Barnett discourages the practice except for scientific conservation purposes.
She targeted Whalen's site because she lives close by and had seen a few specimens in her neighborhood.
Also known as the common box turtle, this type grows to about 8
inches, at most, in overall length and can withdraw completely into its hinged, dome-like shell, which Barnett described as mottled brown and yellowy.
"In my opinion, they are the most attractive turtle in the word," she said. "Slowly, they are going by the wayside, and I think that's very sad."
Unable to discuss the issue without chuckling, Whalen noted that
Barnett's written plea for salvaging turtles from potential death by bulldozer won him over immediately.
Expecting to find perhaps a dozen specimens at the 17-acre site, she would have transported them to the Jug Bay Wetlands Sanctuary at Lothian in southern Anne Arundel County.
There, the reptilian refugees could have burrowed into the grounds of a protected pen and live comfortably over the winter.
As the turtles resurfaced next spring, Barnett or her colleagues would have glued tiny radio antennas to the shells before handing them over to Hagood's Maryland-based turtle relocation project.
The high-tech equipment allows scientists to track a turtle as easily as a teenager tunes his radio to a favorite music station, she said.
"I still have this picture in my mind of the turtles wandering around somewhere with little antennas on them," Whalen said.
He also envisioned "Saved the Turtle" T-shirts.
Neither prospect materialized, despite Whalen's temptation to find a turtle somewhere and plant it on the site.
Although such critters no doubt lived there once upon a time, they probably fell victim to natural predators, such as raccoons and snakes, or wandered into the path of a car, Barnett said.
Young box turtles, which can be the size of a quarter, are especially vulnerable to wildlife.
"They are truly the Ritz cracker of the forest when they are little -- everything will eat them," she said.
Not surprisingly, they tend to hide under leaves and other forest
debris, which is why she needed a dog to complete the search effort.
Whalen said he was further amused that a turtle-hunting dog existed.
Barnett hadn't mentioned a dog in her original request, but suggested one after she and her two-legged colleagues exhausted their own capabilities Oct. 3.
Thus 5-year-old Drew, a 60-pound Labrador retriever-like mutt with a nose for turtle and a taste for peanut butter, joined the second outing Oct. 18.
Accompanied to the site by Hagood and Barnett, she dashed nose-first into the forest, sweeping through leaves, dirt and mud for aromatic clues.
"When she's on a turtle, her nose is to the ground and her tail is wagging," said Hagood, a wildlife specialist with the U.S. Humane Society's Gaithersburg office.
It's only a game for the dog, she said.
She had introduced Drew to the game after adopting her from a U.S. Customs dog-training facility in Virginia about three years ago.
Slated for a career in drug detection, the canine failed the course because it was spooked by an airport-style conveyor belt.
Hagood used a turtle-scented towel and some peanut butter, for reward, to shift Drew's interest from cocaine to her current target. She loves peanut butter, any variety, and has recovered more than 400 turtles since then.
"A couple of attempts, and she had it," Hagood said. "I just ask her where the turtles are -- she knows what I mean."
Thus, after nosing Whalen's site for two hours and finding none,
Hagood concluded there were none.
"If there were any turtles there, I think we would have stumbled on at least a couple," she said.
Disappointed by the outcome, Whalen said he planned to donate $500 to help preserve the box turtle population in Maryland.
For information about the Mid-Atlantic Turtle and Tortoise Society, an all-volunteer nonprofit group, go to www.matts-turtles.org.
Developer's Project Not Slowed by Box Turtles
Developer's project not slowed by box turtles
