Information provided by Davide Zailo, GSTC Research Program Manager
Final Update – July 26, 2024
- First Terrapin Encounter: May 1, 2024
- Most recent terrapin encounter: July 21, 2024 – 10:19 am
- Total encounters: 492
- Number of Unique Individual Terrapins: ~ 393
- Terrapins can nest multiple times per year. GSTC teams recaptured two terrapins, four times this season, and 27 individuals were captured at least twice this season.
- Terrapins alive, uninjured: 388 (79%)
- Terrapins hit by car: 104 (21%)
- 10 undergoing rehabilitation at the Georgia Sea Turtle Center
- 248 eggs saved from 50 hit-by-car terrapins. These eggs are currently being incubated. 70 have hatched.
* Remember that swerving to miss terrapins and/or exiting a vehicle to assist a terrapin are both significant hazards, and you should prioritize your own safety on the road. Should you see a terrapin, or have a concern, please alert GSTC staff directly using the Terrapin Hotline at 912-270-8865.
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Thank you for your support and assistance during this busy season!
With the overwhelming majority of terrapin nesting complete, the Georgia Sea Turtle Center (GSTC) is calling an official end to a successful 2024 Diamondback terrapin nesting season. In the coming weeks, an occasional nesting female may be found, and hatching will be occurring in nests along the causeway. Some of the hatchlings will dig their way out immediately; others will remain approximately six inches underground and emerge as winter is ending.
Since 2007, GSTC has worked to quantify and mitigate terrapin road mortality. Throughout the nesting season of May through July, GSTC staff regularly monitor the causeway to perform a census of the terrapins.
Injured animals receive treatment at the GSTC Hospital, while uninjured individuals are uniquely marked and released away from the road. These marked terrapins are key to understanding the proportion of the nesting population which succumbs to road mortality, and the information is used to assess whether the population is growing, stable, or declining.
A little history about Davide Zailo….
Between 2014-2016 Davide was awarded a student assistantship at the Georgia Sea Turtle Center while working towards a master’s degree in Conservation Ecology and Sustainable Development at the University of Georgia’s Odum School of Ecology. During his assistantship, which was funded by JIF and a Coastal Incentive Grant from GDNR via NOAA, Zailo studied the movements and behavior of priority turtle species on Jekyll. Support from JIF donors funded the purchase of much-needed research equipment including a drone and GPS tracking equipment. The drone and GPS methods Zailo produced have been utilized by researchers studying a variety of wildlife throughout North America. After a brief stint with the Georgia DNR in winter 2020-2021 working with North Atlantic Right Whales, Davide returned to the GSTC and is currently the Center’s Research Program Manager, leading a staff of eight research technicians.
