Rain isn't exactly the weather that causes people to flock to a hiking opportunity, but there were three of us willing to take a chance on August 9th, hoping that the rain in the area would be light and scattered.
We encountered drizzle as we began, but it only lasted minutes, cooling the air and creating a damp lushness in this little bit of wilderness at Marie Myers Park along the South Loop Trail of Knoxville's Urban Wilderness.
Turtles clearly like the dampness and were moving around. We encountered four of them during our hike and there were likely many more that we didn't see hidden in the vegetation. I usually see Eastern Box Turtles in my yard, one at a time, throughout the year. Seeing four of them within a short period of time gave me a unique opportunity to witness their variations in shape, color and patterns.
Naturalist, Stephen Lyn Bales, picked up the turtle briefly to determine if it was male or female. Males generally have red eyes but that is not always an indicator. On the underside of the shell or plastron, you can feel whether the shell is concave or convex. Males have a concave shape to the lower two thirds of the plastron.
The second turtle we encountered was young and did not withdraw his head into the shell but continued moving with his neck extended. Besides inexperience, young turtles do not have the capacity to close their shell tightly as adults do.
He was intently feeding on something which he continued to hold in his mouth as Stephen Lyn examined his plastron to again check for gender.
Eastern Box Turtles are believed to be declining and biologists are concerned because we do not have effective ways to count and track populations. Habitat loss and fragmentation, death by automobiles and human collection for pets are putting box turtle populations at risk.
Above, you get an idea of the lushness of the park environment. Portions of the trail follow a ridge where water runs down periodically. Along this portion of the trail we found large stands of jewel weed, a favorite plant of hummingbirds. Our third box turtle encounter is pictured, below.
At the end/entrance of one section of the trail their is a path cut through exotic bamboo. This is an invasive species that sends runners underground and is very difficult to contain. You can see how the bamboo blocks light and crowds out native plants as it grows thicker and matures. It will continue to spread if not kept trimmed back, a task that generally takes a chain-saw.
Our fourth turtle, below, quickly retracted his head and hid under his shell. The yellow patterns on his back were noticeably different from the previous turtles encountered with less yellow.
Eastern Box turtles are one of the few turtles that can actually close their shell tight. The upper one-third of the plastron is hinged, making this closure possible. You can see the slant of the upper plastron and the hinged area in the image below. The ability to completely close their shells means that box turtles have few successful predators--primarily raccoons, whose strength, dexterity and sharp teeth enable them to pry open the shell. The broken edges on this turtle's front carapace lead one to suspect he has encountered a raccoon.
Below, Stephen Lyn Bales, examines a box turtle to determine sex. All of the turtles we encountered appeared to be males. The Eastern Box Turtle is a species that has
temperature-dependent sex determination--that is, the sex of the hatchling is determined by the environmental temperature during a temperature-sensitive period that occurs while the embryo is developing gender characteristics.
Piece-by-Piece is the name of a series of hikes scheduled monthly by Ijams Nature Center, and led by Senior Naturalist, Stephen Lyn Bales. These hikes traverse the South Loop of Knoxville's Urban Wilderness Trail in 2-3 mile sections and occur every second Saturday of the month. We're casual hikers with no speed or endurance goals other than finishing the hike! We're there to enjoy physical activity, nature, and get familiar with the South Loop trails so we can continue to enjoy them. Come join us!
Blog posts on hiking the
South Loop Trail
Blog posts on
sea turtles
Stephen Lyn Bales--Nature Calling
Piece-by-Piece--Urban Wilderness South Loop
Knoxville's Urban Wilderness
Legacy Parks Foundation--Knoxville's Urban Wilderness hike descriptions with trail maps
No comments:
Post a Comment