Dalton State College biology professor Chris Manis carries a snapping turtle on his head while volunteer Peter Lugthart, a senior at McCallie, carries another in a tub as they work on a turtle study at the Lakeshore Park in Dalton, Ga. Turtles are trapped, measured and marked for identification purposes before being release back into the water.Dalton State College biologists want to make ponds and a wetland at a Dalton, Ga., city park more turtle friendly.
So this week and next they’re trapping Northern snapper, stinkpot, Eastern painted, yellow-bellied slider, river cooter and Eastern spiny soft shell turtles at Lakeshore Park. They weigh, measure, check the turtles’ sex and mark them using a system of painless notches in their shell.
“My goal is to catch every single turtle,” biology professor Chris Manis said, referring to the multiyear turtle census that’s in its second year.
One day, the information should let biologists gauge how turtles are helped by proposed improvements — such as reducing the slope of the ponds’ steep banks to make it easier for turtles to crawl out and lay their eggs, he said.
“We want to establish numbers on the populations to see how they’re affected through the restoration,” student researcher Cris Shelton said.