- Hi there, I'm Frank Graff, saving North America's tiniest turtle.

It is teeny tiny.

How North Carolina's state reptile is dealing with a growing state and how a rescue team of veterinarians is helping our hard-shelled friends.

It's turtle time on "Sci NC."

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You will not see any animated or live action ninja turtles on this program.

Sorry about that.

However, you will find North America's tiniest turtle.

It's called the bog turtle, and it is no bigger than the size of your hand, and it needs help.

Sarah Choi from the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media reports from Western North Carolina.

[crickets chirping] - [Sarah] In these mountains, a small creature is hiding in the soft wet ground.

[mud gurgles] The saturated soils and low vegetation create the perfect habitat for bog turtles.

- Bog turtles are a unique species, and I think they're just really fascinating.

They are these sort of mysterious animals that live down in the mud in these really cool habitats.

[mud squelches] - [Sarah] This deep mucky soil conceals the bog turtle's most colorful trait.

- This guy, you can't tell 'cause he's being a little shy, but they have these beautiful, bright orange patches on both sides of their neck.

- [Sarah] The bright patches range from yellow to a reddish orange, and they're part of what makes the bog turtle unique.

You can also identify the bog turtle by its brownish black shell covered in scutes, the bony plates on a turtle shell.

Biologists can tell the age of a young bog turtle by looking at the scutes.

Although their average lifespan remains unknown, some scientists have found bog turtles as old as 50.

These omnivorous creatures eat seeds, berries, and insects, but their most notable feature is their size.

Only an inch long when hatched.

Fully grown adults are under four and a half inches long.

That makes them North America's tiniest turtle.

Meet Casper.

[transmitter beeping] Killian can learn a lot from Casper with just a few observations.

The data record is so specific that it can pinpoint who his mother is, what cohort he grew up with, and even the exact day he was born.

When Killian and the other scientists find a turtle, they have to work them up.

That's a kind of checkup.

At four and a half inches long and weighing five ounces... - This is a very healthy individual.

This is a very large male, and you can see it's not that big, but this is considered to be a large, healthy male.

- [Sarah] Asper is thriving, but bog turtle populations are not.

Poaching for illegal collections is a huge danger for these turtles.

To combat this, fuel biologists insert tags below the turtle's skin.

These tags function like barcodes.

If a turtle is poached, biologists can scan the barcode tracing the turtle back to its original site.

- So instead of it having to live the rest of its life in captivity, because you can't release captive turtles unless you know where they're from, we know that we can take it back to this site, and it can can find its home again.

- [Sarah] But poaching is just one of many reasons bog turtle populations worldwide are at risk of extinction according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature or IUCN.

- The IUCN recognizes bog turtles as critically endangered.

That's the same status that they designate black rhinoceros.

- [Sarah] In North Carolina, bog turtles are protected by federal law, but their habitat is not.

Something as simple as this drainage ditch could destroy bog turtle habitats.

Farmers dig these ditches to drain the bogs and make the land usable for agriculture.

- What the ditches do is that they draw all the water out of the wetlands, so they're drying out habitat that was previously inundated or wet with mud.

And bog turtles rely on mud for thermo regulation and for hibernation.

So that's really, it essentially makes habitat unusable for bog turtles.

[crickets chirping] - [Sarah] Only about 10 to 20% of mountain bogs in Southern Appalachia remain, and many are in poor condition.

This leaves few homes for bog turtles.

Many of these homes are ghost sites with few turtles left.

- We have a bog turtle or two or five, but you don't have enough for the population to be safe.

You don't have enough for it likely to persist into the future.

- [Sarah] That's for organizations like Tangled Bank Conservation, the Nature Conservancy, US Fish and Wildlife Service, and the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission come in.

They've taken steps to protect the bog turtle.

They track turtles to follow population numbers and work with farmers to protect mountain bogs.

They also protect young turtles by caging their nests.

The number one threat to a fledgling turtle is predators.

[leaves rustling] Ecologists are still learning about the bog turtle's role in the ecosystem.

- A population or a species is in decline, it's endangered, it's threatened, anytime that happens, it's a sign that things are out of balance in the ecosystem.

Something's not going right.

- This is a a community that is a diverse one.

It's a community that's persistent for tens of thousands of years.

It's dynamic, and bog turtles are a part of that dynamic system.

And they're beautiful.

I love spending time observing them.

I love being in these spaces.

- We have a bit of an obligation as people to kind of undo some of the damage that our fellow people and our ancestors, and even ourselves, have done.

And the bog turtle especially has been really negatively impacted by human activity.

- [Sarah] Once scientists have gathered the conservation data they need, they released the turtles back into their boggy home with the hope that these tiny turtles can beat their biggest challenges.

- [Mike] They belong here, and I'm continuing to learn more about them every day.

- Want more Sci NC?

You can find these stories and more on our YouTube channel.

Like and subscribe.

Chances are you've probably seen this next turtle on the road or the driveway or in your yard even.

It's the eastern box turtle.

It is North Carolina's state reptile.

However, in a state with a booming population, the eastern box turtle is running out of space.

Rachel Geier from the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media reports from the Piedmont Wildlife Center in Durham.

[crickets chirping] [transmitter beeping] - [Rachel] Research Coordinator Kaitlin Saxton is looking for a box turtle that lives in this forest not far from Interstate 40.

[crickets chirping] [transmitter beeping] The beep of the turtle's transmitter tells Saxton she's getting close.

[transmitter buzzes] The closer Saxton gets to the turtle, the louder the beat.

[transmitter buzzes] After a 10-minute walk, Saxton can hear that she's honing in on the turtle.

The turtle's near, but where?

- They like bury themselves under the pine needles, so sometimes it's hard to spot them.

But I think he's like right in here.

[leaves rustling] - [Rachel] This eastern box turtle is one of six box turtles that researchers track at the Piedmont Wildlife Center.

- This is the radio telemetry.

This is the transmitter that goes on the turtle shell.

We just kind of secure it with a little bit of epoxy.

And this is the antenna.

It doesn't hurt the turtle or interfere with their behaviors in any way.

- [Rachel] Saxton records the turtle's GPS location, it size, and the outside temperature at the time of sighting.

[transmitter beeps] North Carolina had no plan to protect eastern box turtles until two professors from UNC Greensboro started the box turtle connection project in 2007.

The project has 30 sites around the state where researchers track the numbers and health of the turtles.

The Piedmont Wildlife Center or PWC is one of those sites.

[crickets chirping] Biologists refer to box turtles as an indicator species.

That means that a drop in their numbers or health can signal a threat to the entire ecosystem.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature calls eastern box turtles a vulnerable species.

That's because of habitat loss and urbanization.

Urbanization happens when natural, previously undeveloped areas, turn into cities through the construction of roads, houses, and other buildings.

- [Instructor] This is Shelly, she's an eastern box turtle.

She's our only female ambassador turtle that we have at Piedmont Wildlife Center.

We estimate that she's maybe around 40 years old or so.

And then Sheldon, the one who's moving around with the orange coloration is the male.

They both came to us from the same place, from someone.

It was after someone who had a bunch of box turtles that they couldn't take care of, needed to find new places for them, so they came to live with us.

They go to programs.

They go to schools.

They go to birthday parties to just teach people about box turtles and give people the opportunity to meet a box turtle up close.

- [Instructor] But the scales feel different from the shell.

- [Rachel] So close that visitors to the wildlife center can learn how to tell males from females.

Turtles like Sheldon and Shelly help school children learn about wildlife.

Recent visitor, Cora Schisler, was paying special attention.

- I like box turtles because of how unique they are.

It's just so cool because they have all different features that other turtles can't do.

- And typically, males are gonna be the more brightly colored ones.

Another way we can tell that Sheldon is a male is if we were to lift him up and look at the bottom of his shell, which is called the plastron.

There's a little indentation where you can put your thumb, and on a female that would be more flat.

And then one more way we can tell that Shelly is female is if we look at her overall shape of her shell, it's a lot more dome-shaped, whereas Sheldon's was a little bit flatter.

- [Rachel] Besides hosting school kids, staff work with local residents who track turtles and then post photos they've taken in backyards, forest, or on the roadside.

[camera clicks] - My name's Bronwen Nishikawa, and I am a citizen or community scientist.

[camera clicks] - [Rachel] Nishikawa and her family have contributed more than 80 "shellfies" to the citizen science project Turtle Checkers.

- One of the best things we can do when we see a turtle is first off, make sure that it is safe and away from traffic, and that you're safe and away from traffic as well.

So it would be to move the turtle if it's not and take a picture or a "shellfie."

If you see a turtle, just come up nice and slow and take a couple pictures straight overhead.

[camera clicks] There.

And if possible, I try to get one on the side.

[camera clicks] And there's your "shellfie."

And so these pictures will be submitted to the database.

That's where the artificial intelligence will start looking at the pictures, the pattern on the shell and compare it to the other ones in the database.

- [Rachel] Shellfies submitted by citizen scientists like Nishikawa, go to PWC Research Coordinator Kaitlin Saxton.

- And then we will give those photos to someone who we're working with to develop an AI tool.

And the AI tool will basically look at two pictures and determine, "Are these the same turtle?"

- [Rachel] Working together, scientists and local citizens are raising awareness about this vulnerable animal and helping it survive amid ever increasing human populations.

[camera clicks] - [Announcer] Follow us on Instagram for beautiful images of North Carolina and cool science facts.

[gentle music] - As North Carolina's population grows and turtle habitat shrinks, collisions between people and turtles are inevitable.

And that's when the Turtle Rescue Team at North Carolina State University's College of Veterinary Medicine steps in.

- So Cowfish was found on the side of the road.

[water swishing] He was probably hit by a car.

We tried to repair his shell a little bit.

You're doing a great job.

Right now he's got that white ointment that's on him.

That's an antimicrobial ointment to try to prevent any type of infection, and it also promotes shell healing.

This will heal up nicely, especially in the snapping turtles.

It'll kind of keratinize with like your fingernail.

I love it when they're this active.

It's a good sign.

Does that mean that you're ready to go before it gets cold?

A lot of times when they're sick, especially snapping turtles, which can be a rather more aggressive species than the other species that we see, when they're sick, they're not as snappy.

So when they get to be snappy like this, that's a good indication that they're ready to be released.

- [Frank] Medical science mixes with common sense to care for injuries in this most unique of hospitals.

[water splashing] - And this is part of the reason why we do it.

It's a way to go ahead and give back to our community.

Since overpopulation is occurring, we're kind of taking more of their habitats, and so this is one way we can make up for what we're doing by healing the turtles and giving them a better life and putting them back in an area that's a little bit more safe.

- [Frank] This is the Turtle Rescue Team at North Carolina State University's College of Veterinary Medicine.

It's housed in a corner of the Veterinary Health and Wellness Center.

Roughly 80 student volunteers make up the team, handling everything from intake and triage to care and release.

- [Taylor] Do you know how many stitches he had total?

- [Chip] I didn't look at the chart.

- [Taylor] I think I got four out.

I think there's one more right here.

- [Frank] And this is Walking Stick.

He's a box turtle.

All the patients are named after other animal species.

- Numbers are really hard for vet students to memorize with everything else going through our heads.

So the animal names, it's more fun for us when we get a turtle in and we get to name it, then we're more into the cases.

Like, "Hey, this is the turtle that I named."

And also, it's much more fun to walk into a lab full of snow leopards and gibbons.

and Walking Stick is a 154.

- [Frank] Those fun names also mask the seriousness of the injuries.

The team cares for more than 500 injured turtles every year.

About half of those injured turtles will recover and be returned to the wild.

- [Taylor] If you look at his shell here, this is a shell fracture he probably got from being hit by a car.

We fix that up.

You can see there's two little holes right here.

That's where we drill through the shell to bring the shell together.

That way we can help it heal.

And then if you look at his front, he's missing this leg.

Sometimes when they get car strikes, they can get a little bit of nerve damage.

And so what we'll do when we see that is we'll first treat 'em with an anti-inflammatory in case like the nerves are just damaged because they're swelling around them.

But this guy, his leg never really recovered so we decided to go ahead and amputate it.

- [Frank] Vehicle strikes are the number one cause of turtle injuries, strikes by lawn equipment rate second, dog attacks are number three.

- So they can totally live with three legs, and they do really, really well with three legs.

We can put him if you wanna move Gibbon- So he's totally able to move if he decides he wants to.

- [Frank] The Turtle Rescue Team sees more and more injured turtles every year.

- [Gregory] I think in 1996 we had 38 patients, and this year is our third year in a row with over 500.

I don't think there are more turtles in Wake County now than there were 25 years ago.

I think that there are more people, there are more roads, and the turtles are getting squeezed.

- [Frank] The turtle team's records show that if a turtle survives the first 24 hours after an injury, the chances of recovery are greatly improved.

And the team has pioneered new treatment techniques to treat injured turtles that have gained national recognition, including using women's dress hooks to repair broken shells.

- One of the things that's really challenging is when a turtle is brought in, in some cases to look at that animal and say, "What are its chances?"

I mean, everything has a chance, right?

If there's life, there's hope.

But we know that a lot the turtles are not gonna make it.

And we try to humanely euthanize those turtles so that they're not suffering.

But there are some turtles that come in that seem to have that extra will, that extra spark.

Even though their injury looks horrendous, [water swishing] their attitude looks pretty good, and we'll give those turtles a chance.

So they're good patients in that they are really tough.

Turtles have been around for millions of years.

They haven't changed a lot.

They can live a long time.

We know box turtles can live over a hundred years.

They have a slow metabolism.

They're pretty docile, but they are challenging because of that shell.

That thing that gives them strength and protects them is a barrier to us when we're trying to diagnose a problem or treat them.

- Turtles like the longleaf pine ecosystem.

Trouble is, North Carolina's growing population is cutting into that forest.

NC Culture Kids explores why the longleaf pines forest is so special.

[gentle upbeat music] - Hello, everyone.

Brandon here.

And today I'm at Weymouth Woods, Sandhills Nature Preserve.

I'm here joined by Ranger Nancy.

- Hey, Brandon.

- [Brandon] Today we're walking around, and I'm noticing that these pine trees don't look like the ones I have at home.

- Yeah, so you live in the Piedmont region, right?

And you have probably more loblolly pine trees there.

We have a lot of longleaf pine trees here, and they have a lot longer leaves.

So the needles on a pine tree like this are the leaves and the ones on longleaf can be up to about 18 inches long.

That's really long.

And that's like a ruler and a half.

And the cones are bigger too.

So with the loblolly, the needles are gonna be a little bit smaller.

The cones are gonna be a little bit smaller.

So that's what kind of makes them really distinct looking from each other.

- Cool.

There is a cone here.

Is this the seed itself?

What can you tell me about the lifecycle?

- Yeah, so the seeds are actually in the cone.

At the base of each one of those little, those parts that pull back are called bracts.

And at the base of each one of those is a seed.

It actually all starts out with that pollen.

If you live down here, you've probably seen those big clouds of pollen in the springtime.

And when that pollen meets up with an undeveloped cone, the seeds, or the cone can start to develop, and once those are fully developed, they'll drop the seeds in the fall.

And once they germinate or start to, you know, actually grow, they'll start to put a taproot down in the ground.

It's really important for them to get a taproot down in the ground.

From there, they'll start...

There's a little tuft of what looks like grass over there behind you, but that's actually a baby pine tree.

So that's kind of the next step.

After they have germinated, they'll start to grow some needles and look like a little + tuft of grass.

Then they'll kind of hang out like that for several years actually, until they've got enough nutrients, enough water stored up till they can start to grow really fast, and they have this immense growth spurt.

And then they can end up something like this where they're growing two or three feet a year for the first couple years until they, you know, kind of graduate to these different heights and start growing out limbs.

And after about 30 or 40 years or so, they'll actually start to produce cones and seeds, and that starts the lifecycle all over again.

- So, Ranger Nancy, I've noticed that around these young pine trees, there's a lot of char marks.

Was there a fire here when the fire hurt the baby trees?

- Longleaf pine trees are really well adapted to fire.

For thousands of years, these plants got used to the climate here, which includes a lot of afternoon thunderstorms in the springtime and in the summertime.

And sometimes those thunderstorms, you know, they produce lightning, which can produce, you know, wildfire if it strikes something.

So over long periods of time, these trees have adapted to be able to cope with natural fires.

So for example, this tree right here, this young one that's in this really fast growing stage right here, at the end of it, kind of hiding in between those needles is this little bud.

And if that bud gets exposed to the heat of a fire, the whole tree could die.

And so that's why it grows so fast during this stage is so that it can get above the heat of any of those fires that would come through.

Or like that little one behind you there, at that stage, you can't even really see that bud.

It's not really developed yet.

So if there is a fire at that point during, you know, that stage, it's not really gonna affect it.

- Wow, that's pretty incredible.

So, there was a wildfire here and the tree survived?

- So it wasn't actually a wildfire.

We actually do prescribed burning here.

So prescribed burning or controlled burning is a safe way to make sure that we get fire just in the places where we want them.

So we don't wanna wait around for lightning to strike, but we also don't want it to be something that's, you know, not controlled because we have houses next to the park and we have the visitor center, so we wanna make sure that it just stays right where we want it to.

But also that the plants and the animals that live here need the fire that they're adapted to.

- I've heard of prescribed fires at other parks, so what about the big trees?

How do they survive the fires?

- Yeah, so the big trees, you can see the char marks on 'em.

They have really thick bark, and their bark is really flaky too, so it's lots and lots of layers.

So as those flames kind of pass by, you know, the really thick bark protects the living inside part of the tree With that, just that layer of kind of insulation.

But also if the tree does catch on fire, like you can see some of 'em have, it's just that outer layer that burns and then the flakiness kind of helps it.

Then if you look out, you also notice that there's not a lot of lower limbs on the trees.

And that's to help protect the tree from flames climbing up into the tops of the trees.

So it doesn't give it, you know, a ladder to climb up the tree.

All it has to to deal with is that flaky bark towards the bottom.

- Well, so I'm noticing that the ground along the trails is very sandy.

Do longleaf pines enjoy that sandy soil?

- Actually, yeah, that's a great observation.

So we are in the Sandhills here, and the longleaf pine trees are just a little bit better at some other trees than growing in these sandy soils that are very dry.

They're very nutrient-poor.

And one of the big things that really helps them out with that is they're really deep taproot.

Longleaf can grow a taproot that's like kind of the main part of the root that goes down in the ground.

And they can grow one that's about 15 feet deep.

- So that helps 'em acre them down and absorb as much water as possible.

But you mentioned poor nutrients.

How do they deal with that?

- Yeah, so actually, there's a lot of interesting relationships that go on in longleaf.

And one of those is that there are these mushrooms that form relationships with different trees.

And there's a couple different ones that will form this symbiosis with the pine tree where the underground part of the mushroom, called the mycelium, kind of intertangle with the roots of the trees.

And it's called a microrisal relationship.

And the mushroom helps nutrient absorption for the pine and then the pine tree actually gives back the sugars and stuff that it produces to the mushroom.

So they kind of both win.

- Are there any other interesting symbiotic relationships that the longleaf pine is a part of?

- Oh, definitely, yeah - So to build on that one, just between the mushroom and the pine tree, one of the neat animals that live here, fox squirrels, one of my favorites, fox squirrels will actually eat the mushrooms that are helping out these pine trees that when it passes through their body, they spread the spores around, which actually then helps go to more pine trees.

And then, of course, that helps the pine trees grow and then the pine trees, you know, can keep producing pine cones and keep going.

And then those pine cones will actually also produce a second food source for the squirrel, which are the seeds in the pine cones.

They're really, you know, high calorie content, lots of energy for the squirrels, so everybody kind of wins in that situation.

- So, Ranger Nancy, thank you for telling me all about the longleaf pines, and I think I learned a lot of really cool things about life cycles and symbiotic relationships.

- Yeah, you're welcome.

Glad to have you here.

And I encourage you, when you head home, look for these types of symbiotic relationships and interactions just with things in your own neighborhood too.

You can find really cool stuff everywhere.

- And that's it for Sci NC for this week.

Remember, if you want more Sci NC, be sure to follow us online.

I'm Frank Graff.

Thanks for watching.

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