Elusive Musk Turtles Caught At Last
Bill Graham
The Kansas City Star
_______________
Kansas (US):
As scientific discoveries go, this one stinks.
Joseph Collins, Lawrence’s resident snake, turtle and lizard expert, searched his home county for years for the common musk turtle. Other biologists and students kept an eye out, too.The turtle’s name comes from a foul smell it emits when it is threatened.
A University of Kansas professor found a musk turtle shell in Douglas County in 1949. Thus the county was listed as the far northwest corner for this turtle’s range. It is common to the wetlands of the eastern and southeastern United States, including Missouri.
But here was an unsolved mystery, a tease for scientists such as Collins, 66, who retired as a biology professor at KU in 1997. He still maintains the Center for North American Herpetology in Lawrence.
“I’d wander around looking for musk turtles, and I’d never found any,” he said.
Musk turtles prefer murky lake and marsh bottoms, unlike their brethren, the painted turtles that like the sunny side of a log. They’re an ecological positive because they feed on carrion and help clean up waterways.
Their presence also is a sign of good water quality.Collins always wondered whether the earlier find in Douglas County was a fluke or whether the turtles were simply unnoticed.Then this fall, some Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks employees told him that musk turtles may have been seen in Lone Star Lake, a state park 12 miles southwest of Lawrence.
They set nets to catch some.One net had nine common musk turtles; another had two.
Nov 26, 2005
Bill Graham
The Kansas City Star
_______________
Kansas (US):
As scientific discoveries go, this one stinks.
Joseph Collins, Lawrence’s resident snake, turtle and lizard expert, searched his home county for years for the common musk turtle. Other biologists and students kept an eye out, too.The turtle’s name comes from a foul smell it emits when it is threatened.
A University of Kansas professor found a musk turtle shell in Douglas County in 1949. Thus the county was listed as the far northwest corner for this turtle’s range. It is common to the wetlands of the eastern and southeastern United States, including Missouri.
But here was an unsolved mystery, a tease for scientists such as Collins, 66, who retired as a biology professor at KU in 1997. He still maintains the Center for North American Herpetology in Lawrence.
“I’d wander around looking for musk turtles, and I’d never found any,” he said.
Musk turtles prefer murky lake and marsh bottoms, unlike their brethren, the painted turtles that like the sunny side of a log. They’re an ecological positive because they feed on carrion and help clean up waterways.
Their presence also is a sign of good water quality.Collins always wondered whether the earlier find in Douglas County was a fluke or whether the turtles were simply unnoticed.Then this fall, some Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks employees told him that musk turtles may have been seen in Lone Star Lake, a state park 12 miles southwest of Lawrence.
They set nets to catch some.One net had nine common musk turtles; another had two.
Nov 26, 2005
