Turtle Conservancy News and Program Updates
The end of summer marks the conclusion of the Turtle Conservancy’s 2023 Southern Pacific Pond Turtle field season. This was our second year researching and monitoring two populations of Southern Pacific Pond Turtle’s (Actinemys pallida) in Ventura County. Our endeavors are underpinned by shared concerns among biologists across California, who recognize the precarious state of this species…
The TC’s Southern Pacific Pond Turtle Conservation Program has been off to a great start this season. In past posts we've chronicled our search for Southern California’s only native freshwater turtle, Actinemys pallida, at two field sites. Past sightings have been sporadic and too few to confirm the presence of a population of resident Southern Pacific Pond Turtles which are notorious for evading human detection. This changed in May. Once we were permitted to employ hands-on techniques of capturing turtles, we immediately began finding healthy adults suggesting viable populations are present in these two very different locations.
Turtle Conservancy staff and interns spent a day in the field at Sespe Cienega, a site along the Santa Clara River corridor in Fillmore, California, planning for upcoming Southern Pacific Pond Turtle surveys at the site. The TC is partnering with the Santa Clara River Conservancy, who is working to restore the site back to its riparian and marshland glory…
