NEWS - ENDANGERED TURTLE FOUND ON EDMONDS ROAD

Endangered turtle found on Edmonds road

Published on Thu, Aug 4, 2011 by Pat Ratliff

It was Fathers Day weekend when Kara May first saw Frank. She knew something was not exactly right; he seemed out of place.

So she stopped, picked him up and took him to her house.

"I'm so glad I had that instinct that ‘something just felt wrong’ about that turtle crossing the road," May said.

 

He was definitely out of place; out on the road (Maplewood Drive), and definitely not in a good place for a turtle.

But Frank (the May’s later named him Frank) turned out to be much more than just a lost turtle.

May made some calls about the turtle to several pet stores and PAWS Wildlife Center to help identify him, with no conclusive answers.

 

So on June 21, she contacted Just Frogs & Friends Amphibian Center, a non-profit Frog and Turtle Rescue Center and spoke to Thayer Cueter, the founder.

Arrangements were made to pick up the turtle the next day to launch an identification investigation.

 

“Upon arrival we were introduced to ‘Frank’ – the May's named him,” Cueter said. “During the initial examination of Frank, we could tell he was not a Red Ear Slider – a common store bought pet, and not a local. Nor was he a Western Painted Turtle – which happens to be local to our watershed.”

 

Frank is about 10 inches long and is considered an "older adult" as noted by the white under the chin.

Cueter cleaned him up, fed him and made some calls about Frank. He didn’t really look like any of the turtles on her identification poster.

 

Over the next few weeks at the center his shell was cleaned up, he was cared for medically. He was wormed and kept well hydrated. He was offered worms and crickets and he ate them well.

“He looks prehistoric,” Cueter said. “He has beautiful colors under all the algae on his shell.”

 

She said he looked very similar to the Western Pond Turtle poster photos we have, but as we found out, the females look very different than the male, making this turtle harder to identify (the poster had only females pictured.)

 

Cueter’s contact for Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Christopher Anderson, was emailed photos and requested to help in the identification.  

 

While waiting for an answer from the local authorities, another local Turtle Rescue partner Jerry Novak of Pacific Northwest Turtleworks, who also volunteers at the Western Pond Turtle Project at the Woodland Park Zoo, transported  Frank to the Zoo on July 5.

 

“July 7, I was called by Christopher Anderson from the WDFW,” Cueter said. “Several Biologists confirmed Frank was a Western Pond Turtle and, boy, were they excited!”

With good reason – Western Pond Turtles were once the only species of turtle found in the Puget Sound area and were considered common until they were declared endangered in Washington state in 1993.

 

Before conservation efforts helped recover populations, the wild Western Pond Turtle population numbered as low as 150 turtles in 1990.

So Frank, as an older male turtle, could be very important – in a gene-pool sense – with the recovery of Western Pond Turtles.

 

Frank has since had DNA testing, a veterinary exam, X-rays and bloodwork while in quarantine at Woodland Park Zoo.  

 

With a clean bill of health, he was ID notched, had a transmitter placed on his shell and was released to a pond in Lakewood, which is a protect site for the breeding program.

 

Frank is the third Western Pond Turtle found in the Shell Creek Watershed since 1995, and the first male. Western Pond Turtles can live to around 50 years old.

And it’s almost fitting Frank picked this year to be “found” by May.

 

It’s the 20-year anniversary of the Western Pond Turtle Project and also the “Year of the Turtle!”  

Just Frogs and Friends Amphibian Center plan to lead a Western Pond Turtle watch program to help other cities to keep a keen eye out for any basking, turtle street walkers.

 

“There are more Franks to be found!” Cueter said.