Reptile & Amphibian Forums

THE OREGONIAN (Portland, Oregon) 06 February 03 When bigger is better (Bill Monroe)
Adair Village: A cold drizzle outside is no match for the balmy 80 degrees of the hatchery building. Lights blaze 16 hours a day over large tubs, each filled with water and a few submerged sticks and small logs.
And a piece of cuttlebone cud to chew on.
Inside the tubs, about 40 Western pond turtles think it's summer and time to grow. Most hide under the submerged wood and debris, instinctively fearful of activity above the tub's rim.
And a good thing, too.
They're part of a project designed to increase numbers of one of Oregon's two native turtle species (the other is the painted turtle). Pond turtles, the unseen victims of grazing in riparian areas, urbanization and draining of ponds and quiet waters, have also been hammered by spreading numbers of bullfrogs, which eat the little ones like cookies.
Size is on their side. "They're fooling them into growing faster in here," says Dave Budeau, manager of the E.E. Wilson Wildlife Management Area 11 miles north of Corvallis. "Right now, it's probably the warmest place in the valley."
Oregon's outdoor enthusiasts treasure the 1,600 state-owned acres surrounding the former bird hatchery. Birders find many species at all times of the year. Hikers and bicyclists use miles of old asphalt roads on the former U.S. Army training grounds. They all share space daily - and without incident - with hunters from October through February.
The turtles are part of a project, funded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, to restore pond turtles on Fern Ridge Reservoir, west of Eugene.
The state provides the shelter and students and faculty of Falls City High School do the raising - periodically cleaning the tubs and feeding the turtles a diet of frozen fish. They munch the submerged cuttle bones for the same reason the bones are put into bird cages - to provide calcium and other important minerals.
Turtles aren't nurturing types - they leave their young after laying the eggs. Babies spend up to a year in nests dug into soft earth near lakes and ponds - the female urinates on the dirt to soften it for digging - and then emerge. They're instinctively on their own for foraging, and they're small enough to become a quick snack for a variety of predators, especially bullfrogs, once they wriggle into the water.
By fooling them into quickly growing large - too large to be eaten by most predators - biologists and volunteers have exponentially increased survival rates.
A similar program at the Oregon Zoo introduces young pond turtles into the Columbia River for the state of Washington, where they're an endangered species.
"We'd like to do that in many other places," says Martin Nugent, a biologist for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. "It's mostly a matter of having enough funds to do the work."
In the meantime, the department has published a brochure giving landowners advice about how to find and protect nests and important basking sites, with telephone numbers for agency offices throughout Western Oregon where pond turtles are found (503-872-5274, ext. 5346). Bill Monroe: 503-221-8231; email billmonroe@news.oregonian.com
When bigger is better

I'm not sure what a western pond turtle is, Does anyone have a name or picture of one, This comes of having "Reptiles and amphibians of eastern/central north america" I'm not at all sure of what exists west of North Dakota! Does anyone think that Wes von Papineäu should have his own forum now that they're multiplying?

You need to get the field guide for "reptiles and amphibeans of the WESTERN united states."