Students use technical skills to help save Blanding's turtles

An effort underway at Kejimkujik National Park in Nova Scotia to save endangered Blanding's turtles from extinction now includes students from the Nova Scotia Community College.

The students who fix the radio transmitters that are tagged on the turtles accompany the scientists and technicians involved inthe project to theturtles' habitat inside the national park so they can see first-hand how the monitors operate in the field.

"It was really neat to see some of the turtles with the epoxy transmitters on them because it makes it easier to come up with better ideas in the future," said Cheryl Hill, who studies micro-electronics at NSCC.

Hill's duties includemicro-soldering and repairing the transmitters on the turtles.

Blanding's turtles are distinct from snapping or painted turtles by their long necks and yellow throats. They sexually mature at 20 years and have a lifespan of about 80 years.

The weather can play a factor indetermining the sex of the turtles. If the temperature is colder, it means the nest will produce more males, or if it's warmer then more females are produced.

The turtles' breeding ground and gathering place is mostly inside Kejimkujik National Park, although some do nest on gravel roadsides in or outside the park, which makes them vulnerableto being crushed by cars.

Scientists and technicians have tagged Blanding's turtles with radio transmitters and GPS equipment. Once located, the turtles are examined, weighed and measured before they are returned to their habitat. So far, 330 female Blanding's turtles have been found to be living inside the park.

Crucial work

Duncan Smith, a biologist with Parks Canada, said he wanted to expand the circle of skills and people involved with the project to save the turtles. That's why he invited the NSCC students to also work on the 20-year-old project.

"Collaboratively is the only way we're going to recover the Blanding's turtles," Smith told CBC News. "This is another endeavour that's going to help, I think, everybody involved who's been doing some of the technological pieces."

"If a small pond two metres square disappears, then perhaps 15 or 20 turtles have lost a key area for their lifestyle," Smith said.

Peter Oster, an instructor at NSCC, said he wanted students involved in the project so they could use their high-tech skills to lay the groundwork for people who might want towork as technicians in environmental science.

"Not only to actually help outParks Canada with new ideas, new ways of tracking or whatever problems the endangered species run into," Oster said.