Chesapeake Quarterly
Terrapins on the Patuxent
diamondback terrapin in fyke net
Kyaw Moe measuring a terrapin

KYAW MOE, A FIELD BIOLOGIST from Myanmar, learns how to handle a fyke net. He’s pulling diamondback terrapins out of a creek off the Patuxent River that’s now lined with large homes and new lawns where terrapins used to nest. He’s here for training with Willem Roosenburg (below, center), a biologist who’s been running a long-term research project on his hometown river. Helping with his mark-and-recapture study are Margaret Lilly and Tom Parker, students from the University of Maryland where the terrapin reigns as the school mascot. Each diamondback is notched with a long-lasting ID, then weighed and measured, sexed and aged — and finally released back into the river. Over 22 years Roosenburg has more than 30,000 captures of more than 10,000 terrapins. Photographs by Michael W. Fincham.

Kyaw Moe with Willem Roosenburg
Kyaw Moe placing terrapin back in the water
Contents
December 2008
vol. 7, no. 4
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