March 29, 2024

Bristol Aggie Assists with Rare Turtles from Closed Classrooms across the State

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Massachusetts schools have been closed for weeks because of the COVID-19 pandemic and closures are expected to last for several more. Coincidentally and unexpectedly, this also left some teachers with Plymouth Red-bellied Cooters, a turtle native to the area, in classrooms across the state in a very difficult situation. Dr. Mike Jones, MA state herpetologist, contacted the Bristol County Agricultural High School Natural Resource Management (NRM) Department to help with this unusual situation. 

The Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife (Mass Wildlife) began head-starting hatchling cooters in 1984 when the entire population was estimated to be only a few dozen animals in a half a dozen ponds.  Head-starting is the process of raising young animals in captivity until they have passed their most vulnerable stage.  Zoos, aquaria and natural history museums partnered with Mass Wildlife to help raise the endangered hatchling turtles.  Mass Wildlife also recruited teachers and students from around Massachusetts to help and take an active role in protecting our rare turtles. Now, with classrooms empty, the turtles find themselves in need of a home.

“Of course we will help! Give me 48 hours to get ready”, Brian Bastarache, NRM Department Chair. The NRM department is well versed in caring for these turtles. Over the past nine years the department has raised 258 Plymouth Red-bellied Cooter head-starts for Mass Wildlife. The NRM faculty has been deemed essential school personnel as they now must provide the specialized care for all of the wildlife currently held at the Bristol Aggie campus. Bastarache and Kourtnie Bouley, NRM Instructor, quickly set-up a third 500-gallon, recirculating aquaculture system to accommodate the cooters from the empty classrooms.

Throughout this week, Dr. Jones and teachers will bring their cooters to Bristol Aggie’s NRM Conservation Aquaculture Lab.  The first arrivals were from Upper Cape Cod Regional Technical High School and Hingham Middle School. With the additional cooters from across the state, the Bristol Aggie cooter populations will reach nearly 100 animals.  The Taunton Hannaford Supermarket generously provides the bags of greens needed to feed these herbivorous reptiles. Bristol Aggie’s conservation aquaculture laboratory is a unique facility designed to accommodate large numbers of turtles and other aquatic wildlife.  Each year Bristol Aggie takes-in the remaining hatchling cooters that Mass Wildlife still has after all of the participating schools and other cooperating partners have received their animals. This year 54 cooters have been living and growing in the Bristol Aggie facility.

Bristol Aggie’s NRM department is no stranger to working with external agencies having partnerships with several environmental agencies, both state and federal, on a variety of wildlife conservation projects.  Typically, the NRM students conduct all of the necessary work to maintain the animals involved in our projects.  However, like all schools in the state, the students are not allowed on campus at this time. Robin VanRotz, Director of Community Partnerships was glad that the school could be a resource for the agencies. “Our school has been a partner in this project for some time now and we are fortunate to have the resources to foster the turtles for the time being. The agriculture and environmental community always comes together, especially in unprecedented times like these.” The fostered turtles will be cared for in the aggie school’s lab until they can return to their classrooms or be released once the warm weather returns.

About Bristol County Agricultural High School
Bristol County Agricultural High School is an agricultural-vocational public high school set on over 200 acres of land Dighton, Massachusetts. The school has 7 agricultural offerings for their 450 students from across Bristol County and beyond: Large & Small Animal Science, Agricultural Mechanics, Arboriculture, Landscape Design & Construction, Floriculture, and Natural Resource Management.

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