Turtle survey aims to expand our knowledge of vulnerable reptile’s habitat | 24CA News
Researchers have simply completed combing some sandy seashores alongside the Coulonge River in western Quebec’s Pontiac area for wooden turtles, designated a susceptible species in that province. They discovered three.
Their gradual and regular work is a part of a brand new undertaking to watch and defend 4 animal species discovered within the Outaouais. The researchers hope that by looking areas that are not usually lined by these wildlife inhabitants surveys, the recognized habitat of every will increase.
Quebec’s surroundings ministry partnered with Conseil régional de l’environnement et du développement sturdy de l’Outaouais (CREDDO) on a two-year undertaking wanting on the western refrain frog, the Blanding’s turtle, the four-toed salamander and the wooden turtle.
The CREDDO group was tasked with looking alongside the Coulonge and East Coulonge rivers for wooden turtles. (Last yr, the group searched areas the place the turtles had been recognized to be and located about 10.)
Cénédra Poulin, the undertaking lead with CREDDO, mentioned despite the fact that the group solely turned up three turtles this yr, they imagine there are extra.
“We found lots and lots of nests and traces … but we were just not lucky and we didn’t find them,” Poulin mentioned.
Searching for nests
She and her colleague Anne Budge searched alongside the Coulonge River by canoe, paddling between 60 and 100 kilometres over two weeks in late June. They lined the identical areas a number of instances to attempt to get an correct inhabitants image.
Budge mentioned it is nesting season for wooden turtles, which wish to burrow within the sand.
“Whenever we find a nice beach, a nice patch of sand, we stop, try to find the nest and some traces,” Budge mentioned. “Also the slope has to be not too steep, otherwise the turtles can’t climb out of the river.”
When Poulin and Budge discover a turtle, they report its location to Quebec’s surroundings ministry and the world round it should be protected.
Once an space is protected, mining, highway building and any drainage exercise are prohibited, whereas logging is forbidden throughout hatching season, Poulin mentioned.
Planning conservation efforts
Their knowledge additionally helps the province plan for future conservation efforts.
Ministry biologist Amélie Fontaine advised Radio-Canada that Quebec has been surveying the turtles since 1994.
In 2018, researches started monitoring the identical areas in four-year cycles to achieve an understanding of how the inhabitants was doing over time.
The most up-to-date authorities survey, carried out this spring, discovered 35 turtles in six days alongside a bit of the East Coulonge River that had been searched beforehand.
Fontaine mentioned the brand new undertaking will assist the ministry higher defend the animals, together with the potential for ecological corridors that might permit the turtles protected passage between their habitats.
