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Index of Subjects Painted turtles have a very different hatching biology than snapping turtles. Whereas snapping turtles emerge in the early fall, head to the water and hibernate in the muck at the bottom of a pond, painted turtle hatchlings spend the entire winter in the nest, and don't emerge until the spring. So any excavations could cause big problems for a nest, and could do more harm than good. When I did some field work at Point Pelee in 2005, a student studying raccoon predation on snapper nests installed protective cages over known sites; I think they did the same thing for nests of other species, when they found them. That approach seems to me to be the "safest" approach if you want to help out, but these cages must be able to withstand a raccoon attack. A friend of mine showed that even markers as small as a popsicle stick could attract predators ( http://www.jstor.org/pss/4498569 ). However, you probably shouldn't be doing any of this. While snapping turtles are listed as special concern under SARA and are protected on federal lands; Nova Scotia hasn't made a similar designation for provincial lands: http://www.sararegistry.gc.ca/species/speciesDetails_e.cfm?sid=1033 I don't think there's any designation for eastern species of Painted turtles, either recommended by COSEWIC or designated under SARA. However, if I've read this correctly, section 51a of the Nova Scotia Wildlife Act says that "51 Except with a permit issued by the Minister, no person shall (a) destroy, take, possess, buy or sell any egg of a bird or turtle or disturb the nest of a bird or turtle " ( http://nslegislature.ca/legc/statutes/wildlife.htm ) Hope that helps. --Bob Farmer On Sat, Jul 23, 2011 at 08:11, Helene Van Doninck <helene.birdvet@gmail.com> wrote: > Some conservation groups use a wooden frame covered with hardware cloth over > the top of the site. Obviously someone needs to know the lay and approx > hatch date to remove at the approp time. DNR may have advice on this. > Helene > > On 2011-07-23 7:19 AM, "Paul S. Boyer" <psboyer@eastlink.ca> wrote: >> The only real way to defeat the raccoons is to remove the eggs, and >> release the hatchlings when they emerge. I don't know whether that is >> approved by EC. >> >> Anyway, turtle eggs require protection from desiccation. You cannot just >> put them in an egg-crate, and wait. They must be in soil. They also must not >> be drenched with water, which will suffocate the embryos inside the eggs. >> >> As a boy, I once excavated a snapping turtle nest. I had very carefully >> noted the exact location when I observed the female laying the eggs, and yet >> when I dug, the eggs were not there! Eventually I found that they had been >> carefully placed in a side chamber off the vertical excavation, so that the >> eggs were directly under a clump of protective grass. I kept the eggs in >> soil, lightly moist but not at all saturated, until they hatched, whereupon >> the young were released. >> >> >> On 18 Jul 2011, at 9:25 AM, Burkhard Plache wrote: >> >>> Yesterday evening around 7pm, we noticed a Painted Turtle digging >>> in our driveway. Unfortunately, we got a bit close before noticing, >>> so it moved away. This morning, it was at it again. >>> With the abundance of Racoons in our area, is there any advice >>> on how to best protect the nest? >>> >>> Also, we saw a Snapping Turtle dig at the side of the road >>> near Frog Pond this morning. >>> >>> Burkhard >> >
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