# i found this on a herp site



## Death in #'s (Apr 29, 2003)

why do they do this
its a string glued to the back??????


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## lemmywinks (Jan 25, 2004)

WTF is that? thats mean to do to a little box turtle


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## Death in #'s (Apr 29, 2003)

lemmywinks said:


> WTF is that? thats mean to do to a little box turtle


 the site says


> Thread trailer on Florida box turtle


they are a presevation site
that helps lots of wounded herps
i thought its does any harm to the animal


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## DuffmanRC (Oct 2, 2003)

looks like somthing they use to catch it?


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## Death in #'s (Apr 29, 2003)

DuffmanRC said:


> looks like somthing they use to catch it?










i thought that
its siliconed to the turtles shell
so they must of already had it


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## sweet lu (Oct 3, 2003)

looks like a bandage or a tracking device


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## randomhero (Mar 29, 2004)

That looks kinda mean, lol. Doesnt seem like it would help much if they were trying to track it. Wouldnt the string run out eventually?


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## lemmywinks (Jan 25, 2004)

is that some sort of tracking device thing?


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## Death in #'s (Apr 29, 2003)

where the hell is crockeeper when we need him


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## Atlanta Braves Baby! (Mar 12, 2003)

Hmmm thats interesting, I wonder what that is!?!??


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## CrocKeeper (Dec 26, 2003)

Box turtles have incredibly small home ranges, and that is one method of keeping track of the turtle, but more importantly WHERE IT HAD BEEN....the trail of thread left behind is a visual way to see what the turtle didand where it went.

The potential problems with such a system is that there is great potential for disruption from other taxa...and possible ensnarement of other taxa as well... but in general an ok method to figureout where a specific individual is and where it was.....


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## Death in #'s (Apr 29, 2003)

thanks croc
i was like wtf when i saw it
it blew my mind why they did it
i knew it wasent bad from the site

so they let it go back into the wild with that
or they keep them in enclosures


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## aaron07_20 (Apr 23, 2004)

What is that thing? That picture make me mad...







I used to have a great Ornate Box Turtle, I kept him outside in a big pen..he was very happy..but one day he decided to leave







Im planning on getting a eastern box turtle because they are native to Pennsylvania.....I dont even have my razorback musk turtle..my painted turtle..my softshell...or my red eared slider because I gave them up to get my fish, now they are all living happily with a caiman at my lfs store..







Atleast I can always visit them, they're not for sale either...


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## acestro (Jul 7, 2003)

I've done some research with this.

It's called "Thread Spooling", and (like CrocKeeper said) it helps track where a turtle goes. It eventually just falls off, I've never seen any wildlife harmed by it. It's fun and a pain in the @$$ to track the thread, but it's quite time consuming. There's people at Savannah Research Labs that have been doing this for years, specifically on chicken turtles.


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## Death in #'s (Apr 29, 2003)

acestro said:


> I've done some research with this.
> 
> It's called "Thread Spooling", and (like CrocKeeper said) it helps track where a turtle goes. It eventually just falls off, I've never seen any wildlife harmed by it. It's fun and a pain in the @$$ to track the thread, but it's quite time consuming. There's people at Savannah Research Labs that have been doing this for years, specifically on chicken turtles.


 how does it fall off
it looks like its siliconed on

and how much info do they get out of that experment


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## CrocKeeper (Dec 26, 2003)

It falls off becaus eit is siliconed to the shell which sheds scutes every year as the turtle grows, more frequently than that on the young turtles..

the volumes of information that can be gained are incaluable...


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## Lonald (Jan 10, 2004)

looks like that string would be hard to follow, or break easily, what excactly is it made of?


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## Innes (Jan 13, 2003)

is it not so they can find it again in the morning lol


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## acestro (Jul 7, 2003)

Lonald said:


> looks like that string would be hard to follow, or break easily, what excactly is it made of?


 It is actually hard to follow, thread spools from inside of spool (not typical).


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## MR.FREEZ (Jan 26, 2004)

maybe that turtle belongs to an electritian and he sends him through the walls to

fish wires







j/k but it doesnt seem like that great of an ideal to track were

its been and such wouldnt the sting move or break


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## acestro (Jul 7, 2003)

String doesn't move or break.


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## Death in #'s (Apr 29, 2003)

CrocKeeper said:


> It falls off becaus eit is siliconed to the shell which sheds scutes every year as the turtle grows, more frequently than that on the young turtles..
> 
> the volumes of information that can be gained are incaluable...


 cool
i dident now that turtles shed


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## acestro (Jul 7, 2003)

It's definitely not obvious. However, my experience has been the thread apparatus actually falling off before any shedding.


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