Nebraskaland

JULY 2015 • NEBRASKAland 53 before. One of the things that shocked Ruskamp most was how often he would find a turtle in a trap one day and then catch it again the next day in a different trap a mile up or downstream. Other researchers on the Missouri River have also recaptured turtles during smaller studies. "We have seen turtles swim upriver 25 miles, to probably nest, and then return home. The turtles appear to be gathering at certain locations to nest. They just don't nest anywhere. But they are willing to swim, and who would imagine that turtles would swim 25 miles upriver? I'm just amazed by that, personally," said Mestl. And due to PIT tagging technology, aging turtles will become easier and more accurate. Although young turtles will grow new scales on their shells that can be used to estimate age – similar to growth rings on a tree – the rings stop growing after six or seven years. In the future, PIT tags will allow biologists to talk about age and behavior within the different species more accurately as they collect recaptures from year to year. The Future Additional rounds are only going to become more valuable as the project continues, and in a few years biologists will begin a third round of sampling. "We really didn't anticipate becoming turtle scientists, and being able to talk about turtles is something that is new," said Mestl. "For us, this was another monitoring project, and that is, by and large, what we do. We usually describe numbers and changes in our fish populations. But because of the design of this project, I think we are going to be able to document some turtle behavior that's never been captured before." How will this study fit in the turtle world? Is it unique? Will its findings affect the understanding of river turtles worldwide or will it be more important locally? More rounds will tell. ■ Demand for Turtles Turtle populations receive pressure from several directions. "They get hit at multiple levels, as a food product, a medical product, a research product and a pet product," said Gerald Mestl, Missouri River Program Manager. "The Asian markets will take almost any turtle the United States can ship. There's a huge market for live turtles and every turtle has a market. Depending on the species, they're almost all vulnerable." Although the commercial harvesting of turtles in Nebraska is illegal, arrests do happen from time to time on the Missouri River, mostly targeting snapping turtles for the local food trade; in the current market among the right buyers, turtle meat can sell for as much as $30 per pound. While overharvesting problems are relatively small in Nebraska, in surrounding Midwestern states and in the South – where the commercial harvesting of aquatic turtles remains legal – overharvesting is a hot-button issue. Noah Luedtke finds a smooth softshell turtle basking on a sandy beach of the Missouri River.

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