NORTHERN DIAMONDBACK TERRAPIN
CONSERVATION AND RESEARCH AT
THE RICHARD STOCKTON COLLEGE OF NEW JERSEY

Around a hundred years ago, terrapins were considered a gourmet food item and a dozen females brought the modern equivalent of $1700 at the markets in Philadelphia and Baltimore. Not surprisingly, the terrapins were hunted to near extinction in the mid-Atlantic region. Prohibition led to a decrease in available sherry, an essential ingredient in terrapin stew, and food fads changed, so the terrapin populations did rebound in the middle part of this century.

Today, this protected species can still be trapped and hunted legally, but a great number are unintentionally drowned in commercial crab traps. A much greater threat to diamondback terrapins, however, is the steady flow of traffic using the causeways and bayside roadways leading to summer vacation meccas.

A cooperataive project of the Wetlands Institute and The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey began a decade ago in an effort to reduce the effect of increased traffic-related terrapin deaths on the local diamondback terrapin population. We have raised nearly 2000 northern diamondback terrapin hatchlings in the "terrapin farm" in Stockton's animal science labs. These hatchlings were brought to life after death. They were hatched from viable eggs taken from road-killed females.

We realize that our efforts are not keeping pace with the number of terrapins lost locally each year to human activities, but we hope that our efforts and continued public interest in and awareness of the plight of the terrapins will keep them from becoming an extinct species. For more information about our efforts in diamonback terrapin conservation and research, please follow the links below. Dr. Rosalind Herlands would be pleased to answer questions about her work or arrange a visit to the terrapin farm at the College. You may contact her at rherlands@stockton .edu.

About the Diamondback Terrapin

Diamondback Terrapin Conservation at The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey

Diamondback Terrapin Research

Temperature-dependent Sex Determination

Scute Anomolies

Commercial Crab Trap Excluder Device

Dr. Roger Wood's Research

Tracking

Genetic Variability

Dr. Maria Moyer, Director, Academic Lab and Field Facilities (left)
Dr. Rosalind Herlands, Associate Professor of Biology (right)
at Stockton's Nacote Creek Marine Sciences Field Station,
the site of the last terrapin release of 1999!






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