WANTED: A Sweet Escape

Hiding from the paparazzi, the gopher tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus) was in its shell and facing the wall of its cage in the Aquarium. The environment reproduced for the animal was a sandy forest floor with pine tree trunks and other forest floor debris (pine needles, bark, etc.). The carapace looks slightly smooth but the grooves are still visible, therefore this tortoise is probably a mature adult but is quite young, compared to other gopher tortoises, though the sex is elusive. But I wonder if the sandy floor provided is deep enough for the tortoise to burrow and makes tunnels or if the sandy floor is just that, a floor. If this latter statement is true, then the aquarium should look into rearranging this exhibit and allowing for the tortoise to burrow and have the tunnels displayed, much like the display of the ground hog or other fossorial creatures. I am also curious about the position of the tortoise and I wonder if this is normal or if maybe the veterinarians should take a look at this tortoise.

Greater Siren No More

The muck and the anaerobic water sucked on my boots as I walked through the swampy water to get to the trap. As I untied the trap from the tree stump erected from the water I noticed a large black body, about a foot and a half, in the trap. I couldn't really see what it was and as I freed the trap from the grass I noticed an eel like body and I immediately thought of a two-toed amphiuma but upon further inspection I saw that the limbs were further developed and had four digits and that there were no hind limbs. This fact led me to believe that the animal caught was in fact a siren and from the speckling and the large body I deduced that it was the Greater Siren, Siren lacertina. From the size of the siren, it was most likely an adult. I can tell that the greater siren is paedomorph because it still has external gills, a larval trait which has been retained in adult form. As an aside, I could also deduce that the siren was dead because it was not moving at all as I moved the trap form the three feet deep water I was standing in to the shore of the swamp.

Many stumps of dead trees surrounded the site where I gathered the siren. There were many logs on the ground in the water and there was long grass surrounding the area. The trek out to the trap began easily but then the mud became very thick and kept sucking my boots down further as I pushed of the ground to propel myself towards the trap. For a swamp area, there were not many bugs but there were many frogs in the background communicating. The spot where the tap sat in the water was also quite shady for such a sunny day. -----(Joshua Dillon, SC)

Terrapin Trip

Our class went on a field trip to the Grice Marine Lab in Charleston Harbor to find malaclemys terrapin. The concentric grooves & ridges on the scutes of the carapace and the spotted heads & legs are characteristic. They are ususally found in coastal marshes, rarely straying from salt or brackish water. We only caught this one, but we can tell it is a male because of its small size in relation to a female and (to distinguish it from a young female) its cloaca on the tail is past the carapace.

Lauren Stewart