Online database makes tracking sea turtle nesting habits easier

Submitted by Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Wildlife Division

BRUNSWICK — Nesting numbers are rising and residents and sea turtle enthusiasts alike are anxious to know which of Georgia’s barrier islands will be in the lead this year.

And a new online database will now make this friendly competition simpler to follow.

The database, housed at seaturtle.org, tracks nests in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. Visitors to the site can see the number of nests by location as well as other information, including nest losses and false crawls, where a female turtle comes ashore and then leaves without nesting. Information is updated in real-time as members of Georgia’s Sea Turtle Cooperative enter their findings.

Last year marked the 20th anniversary of the cooperative, a milestone for sea turtle conservation. Coordinated by the Wildlife Resources Division of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, the group of volunteers, researchers and biologists from various agencies monitor turtle nesting activities on Georgia beaches.

The new database will make it easier for the cooperators to share their information.

“The new database management system is exciting because it allows us to monitor sea turtle nesting in real-time and make more timely management decisions,” said Mark Dodd, Senior wildlife biologist with the Department of Natural Resources, Nongame Conservation Section and Sea Turtle Coordinator. “In addition, it allows cooperators who are often isolated on barrier islands to see what is happening on nearby beaches.”

Sea turtle nesting data is crucial in monitoring populations, formulating protective regulations, making management decisions, and maximizing reproduction for recovery.

To view the new database visit seaturtle.org/nestdb/index.

Organizations and agencies that team with Wildlife Resources for the Georgia Sea Turtle Cooperative include Caretta Research Project, Cumberland Island National Seashore, Georgia Sea Turtle Center, Lodge at Little St. Simons Island, Little Cumberland Island Homeowners Association, Sea Island Co., St. Catherines Island Foundation, St. Simons Island Sea Turtle Project, Tybee Island Marine Science Center, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service — Savannah Coastal Refuges.

Drive careful, avoid creating roadkill

FORSYTH — Forget the chicken: Why did the turtle cross the road?

In spring and early summer, probably to find food, a mate or a nest site.

Particularly after rain, turtles and other wildlife wander, sometimes venturing by day onto county roads and state highways that double as death traps for the unsuspecting creatures. The roadkill lineup varies from diamondback terrapins on the coast to fledgling mockingbirds along back roads in the Piedmont.

Senior wildlife biologist John Jensen of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources encouraged drivers to be alert.

“At this time of the year, be more aware of what might be in the road,” Jensen said.

Roadkill statistics are not comprehensive, but a 17-month Purdue University study counted 10,500 animals and more than 65 species dead — mostly frogs and other amphibians — on 11 miles of roads in Indiana.

Closer to home, the Jekyll Island Sea Turtle Center estimated vehicles hit and killed more than 300 diamondback terrapins in 2007 just on the Jekyll Island causeway, according to a University of Georgia article on a State Wildlife Grant study assessing the state’s diamondback terrapin populations.

Female terrapins search out high ground to nest. In the marsh these turtles inhabit, causeways and other roads are high ground, said Jensen, who works with the Nongame Conservation Section in DNR’s Wildlife Resources Division.

Other creatures pay a toll, too. Box turtles, found statewide, move more after rains in spring and summer, searching out earthworms and other prey, mates and, for females, places to lay eggs. The rain not only softens the ground, it can mask the turtle’s scent, helping safeguard the buried eggs.

Turtles are long-lived, late-bearing species whose young already face low odds of survival.

“It’s not good for any turtle to be lost,” Jensen said. “But for a (pregnant female) that gets hurt and killed on the road, you’ve lost her and her eggs.”

Jim Ozier, a Nongame Conservation Section program manager, said young birds also often end up on the asphalt.

This spring, he has seen immature mockingbirds hunkered down on country roads where nearby fencerows serve as nesting habitat. Fledgling killdeer, likely from roadside nests, also sometimes scamper into the path of traffic.

The potential for run-ins increases as development crisscrosses Georgia’s landscape with more roads, further fragmenting wildlife habitat.

Ozier said the threat posed by vehicles is not a conservation issue for most species. But drivers who are watching the road can sometimes easily avoid turning a road-crossing creature into a punch line.

“We certainly don’t encourage motorists to risk human safety in any way,” Ozier said. “There’s nothing you can do if a squirrel decides to hide under your tire, but any driver should be capable of safely avoiding a turtle.”

WILD FACTS: This myth has legs

Perhaps you have heard that “the daddy-longlegs is the most poisonous spider, but it can’t harm humans because its mouth is too small.”

Although this comment sounds interesting, it is false.

Daddy-longlegs (also called harvestmen) have eight legs like other arachnids, but they are not true spiders. True spiders have two body parts and eight eyes. Daddy-longlegs have one body part and two eyes.

You will never find a daddy-longlegs spinning a web because they cannot make silk. Also, daddy-longlegs eat decomposing plants and animals since they have no fangs, no venom glands and no other way to attack prey.

WILD Facts is a regular feature written by Linda May, a wildlife interpretive specialist with the Georgia DNR Wildlife Resources Division.