More than 60 turtles tagged for research
Researchers are set to reveal the secrets they have learned about Olga the turtle, the largest ever Western Painted Turtle tagged in Regina, at a presentation Thursday night.
Researchers with the Wascana Turtle Program have been studying Western Painted Turtles and their work attracted a lot of attention since they found Olga in June.
Since then researchers found and tagged 61 more (all smaller than Olga).
They are still analysing their data, and continue to track Olga and the others, but they are giving a talk on their findings so far.
“It’s very important to study turtles in Canada,” Kelsey Marchand, one of the researchers, said. “To learn the ecology of the species in such a northern, cold environment because these turtles are spending the majority of their time under water in the winter. It’s just very interesting to learn why they would want to choose to live in such a cold environment.”
The talk is set for 7 p.m. at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum in Regina.
“Right now Olga is hibernating, so she’s out in the marsh,” Marchand added. “She’s hibernating with about 13 other turtles and they’re just hunkering down preparing for the winter.”
Work on the data gathered will continue for several months.
Olga measured about 26 centimetres long.
Source: www.cbc.ca
