{"id":5632,"date":"2018-01-31T08:21:36","date_gmt":"2018-01-31T13:21:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=5632"},"modified":"2018-01-31T17:39:41","modified_gmt":"2018-01-31T22:39:41","slug":"wood-turtles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2018\/01\/31\/wood-turtles\/","title":{"rendered":"Video Offers Rare Glimpse Of Wood Turtles Hibernating In An Icy Massachusetts River"},"content":{"rendered":"

In recent months, Mark Lotterhand<\/a> has been haunting the Squannacook River in northern Massachusetts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been running around chasing snakes. On my bucket list was to find a population\u2014called a colony\u2014of wood turtles,\u201d the Pepperell, Massachusetts, resident and author of the 2016 book \u201cIn Search of New England’s Pit Vipers\u201d tells me. \u201cYear after year after year, they\u2019ll go to the same section of the river to breed, to hibernate.\u201d<\/p>\n

A couple times, a few years back, he spotted wood turtles crossing a road not far from a tributary of the Squannacook. Scanning maps, he plotted a likely spot they might be eventually heading. That October, he went looking and there they were.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a nice pristine spot,\u201d Lotterhand says. \u201cIf there are wood turtles that usually indicates it\u2019s a very clean river, it\u2019s a very healthy ecosystem.\u201d<\/p>\n

He’s been taking nature photos for years. Not long ago, an old friend gave him money to buy cameras and editing software so he could create wildlife documentary videos. \u201cI started taking some video in November, when they had just entered the river,\u201d Lotterhand says.<\/p>\n

On Jan. 19, he was back at the river and plunged a GoPro camera attached to a hiking pole into the 35-degree waters. \u201cJust a foot or two under water, they stay there the whole winter,\u201d he says. \u201cTheir hearts are probably only beating a couple times a minute.\u201d<\/p>\n