Des Moines Register
08-26-06
Drake students find 7 rare turtles in prairie
By PERRY BEEMAN
REGISTER STAFF WRITER
Two Drake University students working on a summer school project uncovered
something scientists hadn't seen recently: evidence that rare turtles are
reproducing in a Polk County prairie.
Drake seniors Elizabeth Hill of Iowa City and Hank Vogel of Sterling, Ill., on
Friday held the latest find, a 14-year-old ornate box turtle. That specimen is
among five ornate box turtles and two Blanding's turtles - all on the state's
threatened species list - the students have found at Polk County's 500-acre
Chichaqua Bottoms Greenbelt. The wildlife area and prairie reconstruction
stretches along nearly 10 miles of Skunk River valley near Maxwell and Elkhart.
On Wednesday, Vogel found a juvenile Blanding's turtle in a trap - basically a
five-gallon bucket with a flip-top. That caught the attention of Daryl Howell, who
studies endangered species at the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.
"This is a very significant find, because the yearling is proof of reproduction,"
Howell said after Vogel found a year-old Blanding's last week. Other scientific
studies in Iowa hadn't turned up such evidence.
Blanding's and ornate box turtles are classified as threatened in Iowa, meaning
they are at risk of becoming extinct. It is illegal to collect or kill them.
Hill and Vogel both are environmental science majors and biology minors,
working under environmental science professor Keith Summerville.
"This discovery is a testament to what the county is doing here," Summerville
said of the massive prairie restoration.
And it's not just turtles: A two-hour hike through the six-foot grasses showed why
Chichaqua is seen as an oasis. The trek turned up three raccoons, a goldfinch,
three pheasants, several Indigo buntings and frogs. Loren Lown of the Polk
County Conservation staff has seen four otters and three minks on the site in
recent days, too.
For the turtle study, the students dug trenches over a large area to install a
sheet-metal barrier 10 inches into the ground and two feet above ground.
When turtles get to the barrier, they turn and travel parallel to it until they fall into
one of the buckets. They are not injured by the traps. After the students quickly
measure the turtles, they turn them loose.
The ornate box turtle found Friday was 14 years old. The brightly colored male
was the youngest of the five ornate box turtles the students found this summer.
"He's one of the best I've seen," Vogel said.
The turtles are in danger of disappearing from Iowa mainly because of the loss of
wetlands to farming and development. The Center for Agricultural
Development at Iowa State University estimated in 2000 that Iowa has 35,000
acres of wetlands, compared with an estimated 2.3 million acres in 1750.
Scientists released 55 ornate box turtles at Chichaqua in 2000 after a
development in Johnson County threatened them. The male found Friday had a
notch in its shell, used to identify the turtles brought in from Johnson County.
"It's been a lot of sweat and hard work, but to see these is really great," Vogel
said.