Diamondback Terrapins

     Diamondback terrapins are the only turtles that live in the salt water and brackish water in the salt marshes of estuaries, including Chesapeake and Delaware Bays, tidal flats and back waters behind barrier islands along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts of the United States, from New England south.  Sometimes a few sea turtles are in those habitats, too, but not regularly like the terrapins.  Diamondbacks are a unique kind of turtle in a specific niche used only by them.
     Diamondbacks are attractive in their own, plain way.  Adult males have top shells up to five inches long, while those of mature females can be 8 inches in length.  Their top shells are gray and keeled, and each section appears to be sculptured, hence their common name.  The heads and necks of both genders are pale gray, patterned with black markings.  Their eyes are black and prominent and they have light-colored mouths.    
     Diamondbacks regularly bask in the sunlight on mud flats to warm themselves and clear their skins of parasites.  And they eat aquatic invertebrates that are easy for these slow-moving turtles to catch, including marine worms, clams and snails they find in the mud at the bottoms of their watery habitats.  But most terrapins seen by people are those in salt water channels that poke their heads partly out of the water to breathe air and look around. 
     Terrapins are down in numbers because of over-hunting for food markets, road kills and habitat loss.  But now they are protected by law and are making a comeback in many places along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts.  But many terrapins are still being killed by vehicles on the roads and natural predation. 
     People at the Wetlands Institute near Stone Harbor, New Jersey, for one example of folks trying to help terrapins, are putting great efforts in increasing the numbers of diamondbacks in that area.  For one thing, they take intact eggs from the bodies of road-killed females and raise the hatchlings in tanks until those babies are large enough to not be so vulnerable to predation.  Then they are released into salt channels in coastal salt marshes to finish growing up, live out their lives and reproduce.
     Wetlands Institute people also cover known diamondback nests in the sandy soil of salt marshes with fastened down chicken wire to keep skunks and raccoons from digging up and eating the eggs.  Each female diamondback lays about 6 eggs on average.  The hatchlings are trapped in the wire cages when they hatch and emerge from the soil, which keeps predators, including crows, gulls and herons, away from the young.  Those babies, too, are raised in safety until big enough to be released into the wild with a minimum of predation on them.  In those ways, people are helping to increase the numbers of diamondback terrapins in those creatures' native environments.  Hopefully, the terrapins' populations will continue to increase.         
     Diamondback terrapins are pretty and interesting turtles that live in quiet channels of salt water in salt marshes along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts.  They are not easy to see, but are a thrill when spotted.  But even if the reader never sees these lovely terrapins, it's intriguing to know they exist.