The Natchitoches National Fish Hatchery harvested 33 snapping turtles as part of its recently initiated breeding program. The program will raise and re-release turtles back into their natural habitat.
The staff harvested the turtles from two of the ponds at the hatchery to find two specific turtles with unknown haplotides. The staff has to operate and determine where these turtles originally came from in the wild before they can be allowed to breed offspring. The two turtles will be put into isolation until the staff can figure out their genetic composition.
The Hatchery has only had their turtles since last July. A hatchery in Oklahoma has run a similar program for the last 20 years and it took them two years to get eggs from their turtles in captivity. It’s a long road, but worth it to the Hatchery staff to prevent these turtles from being listed as a threatened species in Louisiana.
Healthy male snapping turtles can live 100-150 years. The biggest turtle harvested at the Hatchery was 175 pounds. The turtles can bury themselves in up to 3 feet of mud and can go without air for long periods of time. Staff members canvassed the drained ponds with sticks, which they poked into the mud to locate the buried turtles.
I had the same question.
What is a “haplotide?” it stumps google. I know it has something to do with mitochondria and dna… 🙂
Genetic markings