The Reader: Ecology and Conservation of the Diamond-backed Terrapin
Terrapins appear at football and basketball games as the University of Maryland’s mascot. These remarkable creatures are even more fascinating in real life as described in Ecology and Conservation of the Diamond-Backed Terrapin edited by Willem M Roosenburg and Victor S. Kennedy.
This collection of 18 scholarly papers makes a detailed summary of the terrapin’s natural history, threats to the population, ongoing conservation efforts and the value of the terrapin as an indicator of the quality of an estuarine system.
Terrapins are recognized as a model for study of exploitation and environmental degradation. Many of the book’s chapters are rather weighty reports on scientific studies with extensive references, but they are filled with fascinating tidbits. For example diamondback terrapins were mentioned in 1793 when George Washington held his first cabinet meeting. Some of our knowledge about the species is based on its appearance from recipes for turtle stew and soup in cookbooks from Grover Cleveland’s first term.
The decline of demand for terrapins as human food may be due in part to Prohibition, which cut off the sherry and madeira that was a critical ingredient in those recipes. It also may have been just a change in popular tastes.
Today terrapin populations are threatened by a variety of predators: raccoons, foxes, otters, rats and birds that attack nests and hatchlings. Human development of shorelines also reduces the areas suitable for nesting. Climate change plays a part as rising water levels intrude on nesting areas, and increased temperatures change the ratio of males to females as eggs develop. Terrapins also perish in crab traps.