NEBRASKAland Magazine is dedicated to outstanding photography and informative writing with an engaging mix of articles and photos highlighting Nebraska’s outdoor activities, parklands, wildlife, history and people.
Issue link: http://mag.outdoornebraska.gov/i/1463221
April 2022 • Nebraskaland 25 he said. "Even if we have two hoop nets in one small wetland, all of the Blanding's will be in one trap and there won't be any Blanding's in the other trap. So, there's some social thing going on, too. They may be cuing each other in." From what he saw in 2021, Lang suspects the Sandhills population is not only super abundant and stable, but likely increasing. The Indian crocodiles are taking priority this spring, but he plans to return to the refuge to study turtles in coming years. Beyond the Sandhills Blanding's turtles are doing best in the Sandhills habitat, but the species can be found in other parts of Nebraska. Thanks to another research project, we have a better understanding of where those places are and how well the population is connected. Herpetologist Dan Fogell, a science instructor at Southeast Community College in Lincoln, conducted a presence- absence survey of the species that ended in fall 2021. The project took him to 427 sites in the Platte, Elkhorn and Loup valleys where he became profi cient at looking through spotting scopes and binoculars and diff erentiating the heads of Blanding's turtles from painted turtles and other species. He found the distribution to be continuous along the Niobrara River between Valentine and the community of Niobrara. He also found them to be present in the Elkhorn and Loup valleys. The research confi rmed that Blanding's turtles were present at locales of many previous sightings, but he also found them residing at more than 30 new sites. "They are conspicuously absent along the Platte River between North Platte and the confl uence with the Loup River," Fogell said. "There are a lot of places that they should be, but they aren't there." He spotted the most turtles of any one location, 11, at Memphis Lake State Recreation Area between Lincoln and Omaha. Oddly, he said, a couple of Blanding's turtles have been reported way out west in the Chadron vicinity, and one near Fort Robinson State Park, in the past decade. Whether they arrived there naturally, or if someone moved them there, is unknown. Tests indicated that a Blanding's turtle found roaming near Scottsbluff in 2017 had previously been kept as a pet. It is now living at the Wildcat Hills Nature Center near Gering. "It's not unlikely tha t they could expand to the west," Fogell said. "They're a lot more tolerant to the changes in climate that we're experiencing and will continue to experience. It's expected that their numbers will increase and the distribution will expand as a result of climate change." If they are expanding west toward other "real estate," it will only solidify Nebraska's claim as Blanding's turtle capital of the world. Let's just hope they take roads less traveled in the process. N A young and old turtle await processing. Note that the old turtle sustained an injury to its left eye sometime during its many years on the refuge.