PRELIMINARY ASSESSMENT OF DIAMONDBACK TERRAPINS' (Malaclemys terrapin)
NESTING ECOLOGY AT SANDY HOOK, NEW JERSEY
GATEWAY NATIONAL RECREATION AREA
July – September 2002

Technical Report NPS/NER/NRTR—2005/014

Sylwia E. Ner, M.S. and Dr. Russell. L. Burke
Department of Biology
Hofstra University,
Hempstead, NY 11549

February 2005

U.S. Department of the Interior
National Park Service
Northeast Region
Inventory & Monitoring Program
Boston, Massachusetts

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Introduction

The Sandy Hook Unit (SHU) is the only part of the Gateway National Recreation Area (GNRA) located in New Jersey. SHU is a peninsula approximately 680 hectares in size, extending north
from coastal New Jersey into the confluence of Raritan Bay, Sandy Hook Bay, Lower New York Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. SHU lies at the northern end of New Jersey’s barrier island system. Approximately nineteen kilometers (km) of ocean and bay shoreline ring the peninsula, which varies in width from less than one-tenth km to approximately 1.6 km in the widest part.

The most conspicuous turtle species found at SHU is the Northern diamondback terrapin, a brackish water turtle. Terrapins are one of the most latitudinally wide-ranging turtles of North America, ranging from Cape Cod to the Florida Keys, and as far west as the Gulf Coast of Texas. Terrapins are the only turtles in the U.S. that regularly inhabit tidal creeks, bays, coastal marshes, estuaries, and salt marshes, where the salinity ranges from zero to almost full salt water. In the early spring, terrapins come out from hibernation and spend their time feeding and mating. During June, July, and early August, adult females cross the intertidal
zone to nest on sandy dunes. Through late summer, terrapins spend most of their time feeding in deep waters in preparation for the winter hibernation . At this same time, terrapin hatchlings emerge from their nests. Hatchlings emerge from late August through September and early October, while some may overwinter in the nest and emerge the following spring. The diet of M. terrapin mainly consists of dead fish, crabs, snails, shrimp, clams and other invertebrates. Terrapins may be an important component of estuarine food webs (Hurd et al. 1979), but more research is needed to determine their role in the ecosystem.

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