Woodland Park Zoo and Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife to release over 80 western pond turtles to the wild in Lakewood, Washington on August 8, 2013

2013-08-01 — /travelprnews.com/ — Zoo and biologists releasing endangered turtles to the wild

WHAT: Once on the brink of extinction, the state’s western pond turtle is making a slow recovery thanks to a multi-institutional conservation program. The press
is invited to a refuge site in Lakewood, Wash. where Woodland Park Zoo and
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife will release more than 80 turtles.

The press also is invited to the zoo where the turtles will be weighed, sized,
and marked for identification in preparation for their release into the wild.

The turtles were collected from the wild as eggs, hatched and “head started”
at Woodland Park Zoo to improve their chance of survival in the wild. Once
the turtles reach a suitable size of about 2 ounces – large enough to escape
the large mouths of bullfrogs – they are returned to their homes and closely
monitored by biologists.

The largest of the 10-month-old turtles will be equipped with tiny radio
transmitters glued to their shells so biologists can learn more about postrelease dispersal, habitat use during active and hibernation periods and,
ultimately, their survival rate.

WHEN/WHERE:  Wednesday, July 31, 11:00 a.m.- noon: The head start turtles will be weighed, sized, and marked for identification in preparation for their release into the wild.

Where: Behind the scenes at Woodland Park Zoo. Meet PR staff at the West
Entrance at Phinney Ave. N. between N. 55th & N. 56th Sts. Park in the inner
north lot off N. 59th St. & Phinney Ave. N. where offices are located.

Friday, August 9, 10:00-11:00 a.m.: The turtles will be released at a refuge
site in Lakewood, Wash.

Where: Refuge site in Lakewood, Wash. For directions, contact the zoo’s PR
staff by August 8. The release site is not publicized in order to protect the
sensitive habitats.

VISUALS: WDFW biologists and zoo staff releasing the turtles in the ponds.

Turtles crawling back from edge of extinction

SEATTLE ‒ Western pond turtles were once common from Baja California to Puget Sound, including the Columbia River Gorge. However, loss of habitat, disease and predation by nonnative species such as bullfrogs decimated their numbers. In 1990, only about 150 western pond turtles remained in the wild in Washington. These last remaining individuals struggled for survival as they battled predation by the non-native bullfrog, disease and habitat loss.

In 1991, the Western Pond Turtle Recovery Project was established to help bring the imperiled species back from the brink of extinction, and in 1993, the state listed western pond turtles as endangered. The multi-institutional conservation project is made possible by Woodland Park Zoo and its partners, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Oregon Zoo, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The goal of the project is to re-establish self-sustaining populations of western pond turtles in two regions of the state: Puget Sound and the Columbia River Gorge. Today, primarily through head starting and habitat acquisition, the population of the turtles has grown from 150 to an estimated 1,200 to 1,500 and is found in Washington wetlands at six sites in Klickitat, Skamania, Pierce and Mason Counties.

These six sites are managed by a combination of Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW), Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR), the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission. “Collectively, the management of habitats at these locations in cooperation with the relevant state and federal agencies have allowed the turtles to regain a foothold within a small portion of their historic range. In the future, robust populations at these
locations may be able to serve as a springboard for expansion into additional areas,” said Lisa Hallock, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife’s lead for reptiles and amphibians for Endangered Species Section.

To help restore the rare pond turtles to their natural habitat, recovery workers take to the field each year. WDFW attaches transmitters to adult female western pond turtles and monitors the turtles every two hours during the nesting season to determine their nesting sites. The nests are protected with wire exclosure cages to help prevent predators from eating the eggs. In the fall, eggs and hatchlings are collected and transported to Woodland Park and Oregon
Zoos, where they get a head start on life and can grow in safety.

Unlike wild turtles, zoo turtles are fed throughout the winter, so by their summer release, the 10 month olds are approximately as big as 3-year-old turtles that grew up in the wild. This year, with financial support from Woodland Park Zoo, WDFW biologists will attach transmitters to some of the released turtles to determine survival rates.

Last November, biologists, conservation scientists, and endangered species recovery specialists from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Oregon Zoo, Woodland Park Zoo, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the World Conservation Union’s (IUCN’s) Conservation Breeding Specialist Group participated in a Population Habitat Viability Assessment Workshop to review the status of Washington’s recovering turtle population to determine future actions, including the possibility of acquiring or restoring additional wetland
sites.

While the western pond turtle is crawling its way back to recovery, the workshop underscored the reality that the endangered reptile continues to face challenges in the wild, acknowledged Dr. Fred Koontz, vice president of field conservation at Woodland Park Zoo. “The loss of wetlands, invasive bullfrog predation and plants, inappropriate ATV use and health concerns continue to threaten the turtles,” said Koontz. “In addition, western pond turtles are longliving, 40+ years, and reproduce slowly. Losing an adult means a loss of as many as 30 years of hatchling production.”

nother threat against the turtle that has recently emerged is a condition known as ulcerative shell disease, which causes ulcerative lesions in a turtle’s shell. Advanced cases can lead to lowered fitness, paralysis and even death. “The cause of the disease is unknown but it is a priority of our recovery team to investigate the disease, identify the cause, and, we hope, develop effective treatment,” explained Koontz.

In one study, scientists tracking the released turtles estimated that 95 percent of the turtles released back into the Columbia River Gorge survive annually. Survival at the Pierce and Mason County sites has also been high. Work by WDFW also indicates that some individual turtles associated with the reintroduction program have themselves survived to reproduce in the wild. “This is encouraging since self-sustaining, wild populations are the goal of the
cooperative recovery effort,” added Hallock.

Media contact: Gigi Allianic, Caileigh Robertson
206.548.2550 | woodlandparkzoopr@zoo.org

Editor note: For directions to the refuge site, call 206.548.2550 or email
woodlandparkzoopr@zoo.org by Thursday, August 8, 5:00 p.m.

 
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