Diamondback terrapins (Malaclemys terrapin), turtles native to the coastal salt marshes of the eastern United States, face many threats to their survival in their home along the New Jersey shore.
Since 1996, as part of its award-winning Diamondback Terrapin Conservation program, the Philadelphia Zoo has helped the terrapins in a variety of ways:
- By giving financial and direct support to the Wetlands Institute and Richard Stockton University for research, conservation action and public awareness.
- By providing equipment for research and terrapin "head-start" efforts.
- By promoting awareness among visitors whose activities at home or at the shore directly impact the Delaware Estuary.
Let's look closer
The two most significant threats to diamondback terrapins are the drowning of thousands caught in crab traps and road deaths of females on their way to nesting sites. Dr. Roger Wood, research director of the Wetlands Institute, has developed a terrapin excluder device (TED), a heavy-duty wire cover that attaches to the openings of crab pots and prevents hungry terrapins from entering the traps. The TED has been hugely successful in combating the high number of terrapins that drowned each year in crab traps. Thanks to Dr. Wood's efforts, New Jersey law now mandates that crab traps in many areas have TEDs.
Dr. Wood is also helping the terrapins in another way. His Terrapin Rescue Project focuses on the problem of the death of egg-bearing female terrapins on busy shore roads.
Through the Rescue Project, eggs are harvested from dead females, artificially incubated and then "head-started" for release. The Philadelphia Zoo serves as one of three locations for the Head-Start program, along with Richard Stockton University and the Wetlands Institute.
The Zoo "head-starts" roughly 100 terrapin hatchlings each year. Students care for the hatchlings at the Zoo for 10 to 12 months and then help release them in the wetlands of the Jersey shore.
Thanks to the efforts of the three participating institutions, about 300 "head-started" young terrapins are released into the wild each year, helping to offset the death of females killed by motor vehicles.
The Philadelphia Zoo's participation in this project earned it the 2001 American Zoo and Aquarium Association's Regional Conservation Award.