Category: Animals
Record Number of Sea Turtle Strandings
According to the Cape Cod Times, a record number of sea turtles stranded yesterday. The National Marine Life Center would like to be able to help the MassAudubon Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary (authorized beach respondants) and the New England Aquarium (authorized intensive care unit) by opening our new sea turtle ward to these severely debilitated […]
Coming out of their shell….
When the little diamondback terrapin hatchlings arrived several weeks ago, they were pretty quiet. They spent a lot of time huddled inside their shells in the corners of their tanks. Now, however, they seem to be coming out of their shells! Each is exploring his or her environment. Each seems to be feeling more comfortable […]
GoodShop for Marine Animals!
We have something new and exciting we’d like to share with you! It’s the new National Marine Life Center GoodSearch/GoodShop toolbar – once added to Internet Explorer or Firefox, each time you shop at more than 1,300 stores (from Amazon to Zazzle!) a percentage of your purchase will automatically be donated to National Marine Life […]
Whale of Good Time
…at least for the parasites, thanks to Suzanne Thurman for sending along samples of the acanthocephalan parasite Bolbosoma turbinella from a Sei Whale stranded which stranded Delaware. This parasite is known from several baleen whales (the big ones), including the humpback, blue (the largest whale), and northern right whale (one of the most endangered whales). […]
Have you ever seen a turtle this tiny?
Eight tiny new turtles now call the National Marine Life Center their temporary home. These diamondback terrapin youngsters hatched too late in the season to survive the cold winter. Weighing a mere 4.1 grams (0.14 ounces), the smallest hatchling is only 25.4 mm (~ 1 inch) in length. Diamondback terrapins live in salt marshes, mud […]
Eat your vegetables!
The National Marine Life Center’s red-bellied cooter hatchlings are growing like mad! Could it be because they are eating their vegetables??? The vegetable of choice (per the Massachusetts Endangered Species Program headstart protocol!) is romaine lettuce, supplemented by a reptile vitamin called Reptomin. Our largest cooter, #8 – affectioniately known as “Scorpion” because of a […]
Shell Game
Patty’s shell (carapace) is finally starting to show some signs of healing but remains unprotected by the hard surface we associate with the shells of turtles on much of its surface. This protective outer layer of keratin (the same material that makes up or hair) will have to form after some more healing, but Patty […]
Eight new Red Bellied Cooters Arrive!
Eight 1 1/2 week old Northern Red Bellied Cooters (Pseudemys rubiventris) arrived at NMLC today around 2pm. Volunteer Linda Jackson and I drove to the Massachusetts Natural Heritage and Endangered Species offices in Westborough and picked up 8 cooters for our facility and 20 cooters that will be disbursed among other groups in Cape Cod, […]
Last Red Bellied Cooter of the 2008-2009 Head start class released!
It was an overcast day as the three of us ascended upon Great Quitticas Pond on the Lakeville/Middleboro line to release the last of the Red Bellied Cooters from the head start class 2008-2009. There were three people and a dog there fishing and enjoying the area. Lori and Tim Benson have taken care of […]
5 Endangered Northern Red Bellied Cooters Released
The National Marine Life Center released five endangered Northern Red Bellied Cooters today at Great Quittacas Pond in Middleborough, MA. These five turtles were ones that had gone through the headstart program run by the state, and unfortunately were not big enough to be released with the rest of the headstart turtles on June 1st, […]
National Marine Life Center
Hello everyone! Today was a special day as we bid farewell to one of our grey seal patients, Vanilla Bean, earlier this morning at Sagamore
National Marine Life Center
We are back at it again with this week’s #wishlistwednesday posting! At the top of the list this week is probably the most common item
National Marine Life Center
Happy #turtletuesday 🐢🐢!! With the arrival of warmer weather, native turtles emerge from a period of wintertime dormancy known as brumation. As these reptiles emerge