Have you ever been motivated to do SOMETHING about the negative effect of humans on your local wildlife? I was. Last summer I took an information brochure about Diamondback Terrapins (DBTs) being killed in NJ and it had an email address to contact if you feel like your area needs attention. I thought to myself; "Every day I see dead turtles on the side of the road where I run. I should email these people!". So instead of running, one day I took my camera on my usual running course and documented almost 20 separate turtle carcasses. I took pictures of all of them, and the scattered, flattened body parts, and kept count. I sent the pictures with some text explaining where I was and what I had done to the email address given on the brochure, and I did receive a reply. It was to the affect of "good work, we'll try to do something about it". I was glad to receive a reply but I didn't see anything being done on the road (in Great Bay they built a turtle fence). I kept taking pictures of new carcasses as they appeared and emailing them, to show the regularity of turtle fatalities on Route 72.
Fast forward to tonight. I was checking the website (www.conservewildlifenj.org) just to read it again and I was on the page "report a sighting of a northern diamondback terrapin". I scrolled down and saw information that I had entered, AND one of my pictures! The good folks who uploaded it even credited me by name. It does sadden me that I'm on their website depicting a dead DBT but I hope it raises awareness of turtles hit by cars, and that seeing it makes it "real" for some people surfing the site.
http://www.conservewildlifenj.org/prote ... nsighting/
"One sighting reported dozens of female terrapins that were being hit-by-car while trying to cross Rt. 72 on Bonnet Island. We have contacted DOT and are trying to determine what if any conservation action would be best for this highway. The sightings will also be submitted to the Endangered and Nongame Species Program for inclusion into Biotics, the state's natural hertitage program."
This really motivates me to do the same this year and to keep better contact with the people who maintain the website. Hopefully a small fence can be built along the road. There are no houses so it won't be bothersome to any humans.
I want this to also motivate you guys! If you live in an area where turtles are in particular danger, do something! Take some pictures, write some emails, get yourself noticed. These turtles can't get the word out about danger zones, so it is totally up to us.
