As spring approaches, we await sleeping salamanders to wake up, leave their burrows and march across forests (and sometimes roads) to vernal pools where the females will lay hundreds of eggs. (A vernal pool is like a wicked big puddle.)
Some years ago, author Jennifer Keats Curtis (JKC) accompanied (was dragged by) biologist J. Adam Frederick, Maryland Sea Grant, Assistant Director of Education at the Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology, to one of these temporary bodies of waters in the Catoctin Mountains. He convinced her that she liked amphibians; and, after seeing the beautiful navy blue spotted salamanders and the gooey globs of eggs they deposit, she agreed. Together, they wrote Salamander Season and the talented Shennen Bersani created wonderful illustrations of a girl and her scientist dad. The artwork accompanies real pictures of the salamanders. The book is an illustrated photographic journal.
And now, there is a fabulously interesting and educational primer to accompany the book. This tool, the brainchild of Adam and his team at Maryland Sea Grant, includes numerous resources as well as instructional strategies. While the co-authors note that they’d love everyone to read their book, the primer is usable on its own.
Salamander walks (sometimes called nights) take place all over. Check with local nature centers, local parks, or Audubon groups to find one near you. While you may not have spotted salamanders in your area, you surely have some kind of salamanders nearby!
Some years ago, my daughter’s 3rd grade classroom shared space with two tiny turtles in tanks. These diamondback terrapin hatchlings were part of an authentic research project with an Ohio University professor and the Anne Arundel County Public Schools (AACPS) Environmental Literacy & Outdoor Education Program in Maryland. Baby turtles are placed with teachers in classrooms for the school year to get a ‘headstart,’ meaning they will grow throughout the winter to help increase their survivorship, explains Melanie Parker, Coordinator of Environmental Literacy and Outdoor Education. In May, some students and teachers help release those headstarted turtles on Poplar Island, a restored island in the Chesapeake Bay. My admiration for this extraordinary program, and the dedicated teachers, kids, and scientists involved, became the basis of Turtles In My Sandbox. This realistic fiction follows Maggie and her mom who raise and release terrapin hatchlings very much like the teachers and kids of Maryland’s terrapin headstart program.
In keeping with my current theme that science doesn’t end just because a book has been published, I was invited to the latest teacher terrapin orientation, (Ok, I invited myself; but they still let me in.) I wanted to know how the program had progressed and what had changed since the book was published.
Despite cold and rain, 86 teachers cheerfully bounded into a conference room at AACPS’s Arlington Echo Outdoor Education Center. “At the teacher in-service, for our returning teachers, all anybody cares about is seeing if their turtle has been recaptured, it’s a highlight of the evening!” laughs Melanie, “They come to hear that and to pick up their babies.”
As the first in-person in-service since the pandemic, Melanie, and Teacher Specialist Amy Greif, were most excited about seeing the babies head out to their new homes, but also thrilled that 21 new teachers had signed up to adopt a terrapin.
The now named TERP (Terrapin Education Research Partnership), is a standalone program, based on teacher interest. Every teacher can’t have a turtle because there are not enough turtles and not enough permits. “Plus,” says Melanie, “the commitment is not small.” Teachers sign an agreement to “ensure their care and follow the protocols of the research project,” explains Amy, “Data on terrapins are collected by the students each month and input into a database for use by the researchers. It brings authentic research to the classroom. Students are active participants in gathering data – ‘real’ research – connecting them to the turtles and environment around them.”
This unique research program and cohorts include Dr. Willem Roosenburg of Ohio University, the lead researcher, and partners: The Maryland Port Authority, Maryland Environmental Services, Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR), and a veterinarian from Greater Annapolis Medical Hospital. Further, as part of this collaborative partnership, the National Aquarium, Calvert County Public School and Prince George’s County Public School educators also raise terrapins as part of the collaboration with Dr. Roosenburg. The National Aquarium is the only partner that can offer the experience to schools across the state. They have changed their application process, though. Because the demand is so high, teachers can get turtles for two years and then they must go to the bottom of the list to give other educators a chance to participate.
During the pandemic, when schools shut down in March, Amy worked with the DNR so that teachers could bring all 84 turtles to Arlington Echo, where they could be vetted, tagged, and safely released in early April. (All turtles are tagged via a passive integrative tag (PIT), much like the microchip injected into cats and dogs, to allow for individual identification and tracking.) In 2021, teachers could not house terps in their classrooms. Instead, a virtual link for two hatchlings in a tank was live streamed on camera. (This tradition will continue for those who do not have turtles at their schools.)
Media specialist Sarah Bigelow is in her 9th year of the program. “We’re a turtle loving family,” she says, “I love it even though it can be a lot of work, cleaning the tank, measuring out food each day, and taking it home over breaks in case of power outages in the school building. It’s all worth it when you see that speckled little face peering at you through the glass.”
Sarah’s first terps, she proudly remembers, were Cruiser (named for the Baltimore Orioles player Nelson Cruz) and Peanut, because he was so tiny. By late winter, the students and I noticed Cruiser was growing but Peanut was not. As part of the data collected, the students measure and record the length and width of the turtles.
As it turned out, Cruiser was aggressively biting Peanut over food. Sarah had to place a screen in the tank to divide the two and suddenly “Peanut started eating and growing.” That rivalry is one of the main reasons teachers are now limited to one turtle per school. “When there were two in a tank, they nipped and bit each other and several ended up in our hospital tank,” explains Melanie.
Sidebar: Naming the turtle babies is a BIG deal. While teachers have their own criteria, at Jones Elementary, Sarah asks her students to observe for a week, noting physical and character traits. Traits of the turtle dictate the name. After a week, students place confidential suggestions in a terp decorated box. During “turtle time,” the dedicated time for turtle-related lessons, Sarah pulls out all the names to find the top three. Students vote with a show of hands. (And, no picking your friend’s choice, she reminds them, pick the name you want.)
While kids and adults clearly love this program, the goal is specific and important—Is terrapin headstarting beneficial? Dr. Roosenburg and his graduate students are specifically researching the headstarted vs wild terrapins to determine if this conservation strategy is viable.
Dr. Roosenburg’s work, which all takes place on Poplar Island—terrapin monitoring, nest surveying and catch and release—can only be described as laborious.
From May through July, Dr. Roosenburg and his team search for nests (289 were found in 2022). In the sandy nest, the team first checks the color of the eggs. If they are pink, they’ve been laid within 24 hours. They are carefully counted and gently placed back in the nest. (In Turtles In My Sandbox, Maggie finds pink eggs, clearly, they were laid not long before she found them!) A screen may be placed on top of the eggs to keep away hungry crows. If the eggs are white and chalky, that nest is older than 24 hours and is marked and flagged. The scientists won’t dig because of the danger of damaging the membrane and harming the terrapin.
While I knew mother terrapins laid about 13 eggs, what was new to me was that they can lay three clutches 15 days apart and it might only take her 20 minutes. Peak laying time is 10 am-2pm, the time of day that best warms body temperature.
During those hot summer days, Dr. Roosenburg and his students use fyke nets and turtle traps to catch turtles and determine if they are part of the headstarted turtles, control group or wild population.
Now in its 19th year, Dr. Roosenburg’s research shows that this conservation strategy for terrapins is working. The headstarted terps grow faster than wild terps and headstarted terps can lay eggs up to two years earlier.
As of April of this year, 3,001 terrapins have been released on Poplar Island and many teachers have proudly seen their recaptures. Dr. Roosenburg’s Facebook page is dedicated to providing information about the program and specifically naming those turtles who have been recaptured and which teacher raised them, https://www.facebook.com/roosenburglab/. (I’m not naming names here, folks, except for elementary school teacher Mary Ann Perret, one of the longest turtle stewards in the program and whose name frequently comes up with those recaptured turtles.)
To me, one of the most special aspects of the headstart program is that kids have the opportunity to learn, hands on, what it’s like to temporarily care for a wild animal, to nurture it and help it grow for a time and then release it back into the wild.
Teacher Sarah Bigelow put it best: While the terrapin becomes part of our classroom, we keep our minds on the fact that we are not keeping this turtle. We don’t talk to it or take it out of the tank and play with her. Would you want to live your whole life in a tank? We are helping this turtle live the life she is supposed to live. That said, she smiled and added one small qualifier: Look, I’m the turtle’s foster mom for the year so it’s even hard for me to see them released. (We won’t tell the kids she said that.)
Baby terrapins awaiting adoption after teacher in-service at Arlington Echo Outdoor Education Center. Baby terrapin in Jones Elementary School’s media center. (Name not yet selected!) Baby terrapin to be transported to Jones Elementary School. (L-R. Teachers Meredith Simpkins of Ruth Parker Eason School and Sarah Bigelow of Jones Elementary School with their new “babies.”
In 2018, Arbordale published the fascinating realistic fiction, Baby Bear’s Adoption. The beautifully illustrated book explains a remarkable adoption program that takes place in Michigan. (To be clear, it is, of course, about scientists helping mama bears adopt baby bears not people adopting bears!)
The book is based on the work of real-life wildlife biologist, Mark Boersen, and his team, at the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, who safely place orphaned baby black bears with an adoptive family. As the narrative details, this is a multi-step process beginning with the very unusual process of placing an electronic collar on a large, denned mother bear in wintertime. (Check out the bright collar on the big sleeping bear on the cover for a visual!)
Fortunately for the bears, Boersen and his team will continue to help cubs in need. In fact, Boersen has had quite the busy summer, placing an orphaned baby with a sow (mother bear) and her two cubs and tracking down another sow who had slipped out of her collar.
This season, Boersen has added new tech to his bear toolbox—drones and drones with thermal camera. The flying equipment will save him and his team a tremendous number of hours walking the dense, snowy woods, seeking the bears’ locations. Once the leaves fall off the trees, he says, we can use the drones to look for curled up, warm bears, note their GPS coordinates and get to them much more quickly.
Want to learn more? You can read the multilingual digital version of this book for free all September in English, Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, Arabic, French and Thai!
Even after a book is published, the wondering does not stop.
A few years ago, my friend, J. Adam Frederick, and I wrote the book Salamander Season after he dragged me to a vernal pool to show me the light. Who knew amphibians could be so cool? Luckily for me, Adam is an environmental biologist and the Maryland Sea Grant, Assistant Director for Education at the Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology in Baltimore, Maryland. Not only is he happy to answer my questions, he always encourages them.
That is how I knew I could ask him about all the toads that I’ve seen around my house lately. So, I plucked him out of my favorites and called him. (Our ongoing joke is that nobody asks more questions than me. Still, he picked up.) I’ve been in the same house for six years and I’ve seen toads, skinks, and even a couple of treefrogs. But this year, there have been way more toads than I’ve ever seen. During our research of Salamander Season, I remembered Adam mentioning the sensitivity of amphibians to the environment so I called to tell him I’d been wondering if this could be a good sign.
Fortunately, the answer is yes. Adam says amphibians are excellent indicators of what is happening in our environment and as we squeeze their space with development and the use of chemicals that impact water quality, their decline continues. (Plus, it’s been warm and rainy, which the toads also like.)
“I wonder” is often embedded in school lessons to recognize students’ connections and to encourage curiosity. Looks like you don’t have to be a school kid to appreciate the technique, especially if you have a scientist on speed dial.
If you are looking for amphibian-related curriculum or more information, here are a few links. If you know of others, please share in the comments below to help other educators, thanks.
The beautifully illustrated nonfiction follows the real Lizard Lady, herpetologist Nicole Angeli, as she chops through rough Caribbean terrain to find and save a critically endangered ground lizard on the U.S. Virgin Island of St. Croix. The slithery little St. Croix ground lizards nearly became extinct after a cute but invasive mammal was brought in to eat the rats that were eating farmers’ crops. (Spoiler alert: The Lizard Lady and her team find a way to save these reptiles from extinction!)
The Lizard Lady, now officially Dr. Angeli, was finishing her doctorate (Ph.D.) as she and author Jennifer Keats Curtis (JKC) worked on the book. Today, Dr. Angeli is the Director of Virgin Islands Department of Planning and Natural Resources. And (drumroll please), she has BIG news to share about the St. Croix ground lizards. Hear more about it as Dr. Angeli and JKC (who clearly have become fast friends) discuss the Lizard Lady’s latest on their last Zoom call video.
To learn more about The Lizard Lady, click here. The book is available in English and Spanish (La Dama de las Siguanas) wherever you normally buy your books or through Arbordale, Amazon, or an independent bookstore near you.
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