Captive Breeding at “Terrapin Town”

[Todd Stockwell]

Todd Stockwell

November 21, 2001 at 12:02 am #16302

Here are more excerpts from the October 1947 “Nature” magazine article detailing the US Fishery Station’s captive breeding program at Beaufort, NC. The descriptions address some of the most frequently asked questions on this list, so I thought it might be interesting to post the info. “At Beaufort the earliest date on which laying has been observed is May 6 and the latest date July 31.” The nesting “hole will be about five inches deep and two and one-half or three and one-half inches across at the widest part.” “The usual number of eggs found in the nest is from seven to nine and they will hatch in about 65 days by the heat of the sun. Under proper care and with healthy stock, the percentage of hatched eggs runs about 85 to 90 percent. While a female may lay only once during a season, it is not unusual for her to lay three or four times. The maximum egg production seems to occur when a terrapin is about 25 years of age. But Dr. Prytherch will tell you that the oldest female at “Terrapin Town” – estimated to be more than 50 years old – produces as many eggs as females less than a third that age.” After hatching in August or September, the young are collected from the egg beds and transferred to the terrapin rearing house. In this building some 15,000 terrapins are fed and hibernated from October to June.” Various experiments carried on at the Beaufort laboratory have shown the advantage of placing the young in a heated house, or small hothouse, during their first winter instead of permitting them to hibernate. This method has reduced the death rate and promoted growth. In the rearing house the animals are kept in square wooden tanks tilted at such an angle that the terrapins can crawl out of the water when they so desire. The heat prevents complete hibernation and the young terrapins that feed throughout their first winter show a gain of about a year’s growth. In terrapins that are fed for one or two winters, egg production generally begins in the fifth or sixth year. In hibernating terrapins it rarely occurs before the seventh year.” “The terrapins are held in the hothouse in the spring until all danger of cold nights is past. Then they are placed in a small outside pen, prepared especially for them, and the feeding is continued as in the house. The young remain at Beaufort for 11 months after hatching and then the distribution work begins. . . In 1945, for example, 11,000 terrapins were distributed as follows: 3500 in Virginia waters, 2750 in South Carolina waters, 3000 in North Carolina, and 1750 in Georgia.” The article mentions that the Station supplied terrapins to medical studies at the National Institute of Health for studies of military importance “in which the cultivation of the infectious agent was being attempted in fertile reptilian eggs because of their incubation at lower temperatures than are feasible in avian eggs.”

[Author]

Posts