The Washington Post - USA (2022-06-07)

E2 EZ EE THE WASHINGTON POST.TUESDAY, JUNE 7 , 2022

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HEALTH & SCIENCE

SCIENCE NEWS

BY MARISA IATI

The world’s most imperiled sea turtle faces frequent threats: poaching, shrimp nets, storms and an assortment of predators, including coyotes and raccoons. But 107 eggs found along the Texas coast serve as a reminder that the endangered species can be saved. Volunteers from a turtle conservation program spotted the Kemp’s ridley sea turtle nest last month in the dunes of Galveston Island State Park, roughly 58 miles southeast of Houston. The nest was the first to be detect- ed in the park since 2012 and among three discovered there in the past two decades. “Because Kemp’s ridley sea turtles are the most critically endangered sea turtles in the world, every egg matters,” said Christo- pher Marshall, director of the Gulf Center for Sea Turtle Re- search at Texas A&M University at Galveston, which runs the conservation program. Kemp’s ridley sea turtles were common before facing a dramatic drop-off in population in the mid- 20th century. Those that are left help maintain the balance of their marine ecosystems by eating blue crabs and shells on the ocean floor. The Kemp’s ridley is also the state sea turtle of Texas. The newly discovered eggs are now at an incubation facility off the coast of Corpus Christi, where conservationists can protect them before delivering the hatched turtles back to the Gulf of Mexico. The eggs are safer there than they would be on the beach, where storms and high tides exac- erbated by climate change threat- en their survival. Eggs left on beaches have about a 45 percent chance of successfully hatching,

Marshall said, while the probabil- ity can reach 95 percent in an incubator. Conservationists can also control the sex of hatching turtles when the nests are kept in incubation facilities. Warmer nests tend to produce more females, while cooler temperatures usually re- sult in more males. That knowl- edge means scientists can inten- tionally produce more females that in turn will lay eggs, Marshall said. Kemp’s ridley sea turtles were abundant in the 1940s, when roughly 40,000 were documented on a nesting beach in Rancho Nuevo, Mexico. Four decades later, poaching and fisheries bycatch — the accidental capture of one species while trawling for another — had caused the recorded population to drop to less than 250 nesting females. Intense conservation efforts began, including increasing the number of nesting beaches and protecting nests from poaching with armed guards. Commercial fishermen in the United States are also now required to add turtle excluder devices, escape hatches for turtles, to their shrimp nets. Those strategies enabled the number of Kemp’s ridley sea turtle nests to increase rapidly from the 1990s until 2010, when the number of nests began to fluctu- ate. Roughly 5,500 females now nest in Mexico and an additional 55 nest in Texas each year, the National Park Service said. During nesting season, which runs from early April to mid-July, adult female Kemp’s ridley sea turtles return to a beach near where they were born decades earlier. They dig chambers in the sand and typically lay about 100 eggs, which incubate for roughly 50 days.

The Kemp’s ridley sea turtle is near extinction. A trove of eggs shows rare species can be saved.

SCIENCE SCAN

BY ERIN BLAKEMORE

What comes to mind when you think of Siberia? If you associate a vast tundra with the massive northeastern region in Russia, you’re not alone. Across nearly 2,500 miles of unbroken wilderness, the Arc- tic tundra is a unique and unex- pectedly abundant ecosystem. But that could change if hu- man-caused global warming goes unchecked, researchers warn. And if the world doesn’t adopt consistent measures to protect the climate, they write, the tundra could disappear completely. The dire prediction is report- ed in a study in eLife that simulates how a changing climate would affect the boundary between the tundra and the forests that border it. When researchers modeled how the forests would respond to climate change, they found what they call an “invasion of forests under global warming.” They predict that a climb in summer temperatures would cause the trees’ habitat to creep northward, overtak- ing the tundra and threatening both the landscape and its species. The model simulated the life cycle of thousands of individual trees and how they would probably respond to warmer air temperatures. Researchers studied every- thing from the density of the trees to their growth, seed pro- duction and dispersal, and their

aging and death. Trees are particularly suscepti- ble to warm summer temperatures, so the team looked at how they’d fare if summers became between 1.2 and 5 degrees Celsius (about 2 and 9 degrees Fahren- heit) warmer. The researchers predict the tree line will advance more than 18 miles every decade. And although the trees’ migration will probably lag behind warming by about a century, the researchers warn that only ambitious measures to tackle climate change can protect the tundra. Tundras look barren, but their harsh conditions play host to all kinds of plants and animals, even bumblebees and reindeer. Even if they’re not completely lost, the researchers say, the unbroken tundra could split in two, shrinking significantly as more and more trees encroach. And even with consistent climate protection policies, they say it’s possible that just 30 percent of Siberia’s tundra will survive by mid-millennium. “At this point, it’s a matter of life and death for the Siberian tundra,” Eva Kleb- elsberg, a project manager at WWF Germany, said in a news release. “Larger areas can only be saved with very ambitious climate protection targets.”

ECOSYSTEM

Siberia’s tundra could disappear, report says. Authors push for consistent measures to save it.

Regional opportunities for tundra conservation in the next 1000 years eLife

BY KEVIN AMBROSE

T

emperatures are heating up, and snakes are out. One venomous snake is exceptionally well hidden in our yards and gardens: the copperhead. Copperheads received their name from the color of their head, but the rest of their body has shades of tan and brown in hourglass patterns, providing excellent camouflage in mulch, leaves, stonework and woodpiles. The ambush hunter usually remains motionless for long periods, making it even harder to notice when strolling through the yard or working in the garden. And if you get too close, the snake can feel threatened and strike without warning. Their bite usually requires medical attention, sometimes with antivenom treatments.

Copperheads in your backyard Copperheads thrive across much of the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic regions, although climate models suggest that rising global temperatures could be pushing popula- tions as far north as Michigan and New England by 2050. “Most people are intolerant of any snake and kill them regardless if they’re venomous or not. However, copperheads, if left alone, are tolerant to some habitat disturbance and can thrive in some urban areas. I have them in my backyard,” J.D. Kleopfer, a herpetologist with the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources, wrote to The Washing- ton Post. Yards near wooded lots have the best chance of harbor- ing copperheads, but copperheads thrive in many subur- ban and urban settings, so be mindful when walking or working outside. The mating season for copperheads occurs during spring, April through June, and they give birth in late summer. A fall mating season can also occur, often in September. Copperheads give birth to live young, and baby copperheads are born with bright yellow tips on their tails. The yellow end of their tail is thought to attract small prey to the snake. Baby copperheads can envenomate and are particularly dangerous, because they are hard to see, given their small size. “Contrary to popular belief, babies are born with the ability to control how much venom they deliver. Because they possess less venom than adults, their bites tend to be less significant,” said Spencer Greene, director of toxicolo- gy at HCA Houston Healthcare-Kingwood in Texas. “That said, a bite from a pit viper of any age can be mild, moderate or severe.” If you do see a copperhead, leave it alone or call a professional to relocate the snake to a safer place. Do not try to kill the snake, because that increases your chance of being bitten. Mark Khosravi belongs to a team called K2C Wildlife Encounters, which catches and relocates troublesome wildlife near homes and businesses. Since 2021, the team has captured and relocated more than 50 copperheads in the Northern Virginia area. Relocations generally occur less than a mile from where they are captured, in similar habitat, but not near homes and businesses. Sometimes copperheads are so well hidden that even professionals have trouble locating them. “As a professional, everyone expects you to spot copperheads right away. I can’t lie to people and say I see the snake and then walk in the direction they are pointing. That’s how you get bit. So I let the ego go and take my time, and I always assume there might be more than one,” Khosravi said.

Treating copperhead bites As an emergency physician, Greene treated more than 70 copperhead bite victims last year. He expects the number to increase this year. “Almost all envenomations should be treated with

CAPITAL WEATHER GANG

It’s copperhead

season. Here’s

what you need

to look out for.

TEXAS PARKS AND WILDLIFE Sea turtle eggs are collected at Galveston Island State Park.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF MARK KHOSRAVI

antivenom,” Greene said. “But unfortunately, the biggest problem most of my colleagues and I see when it comes to copperheads is that they are minimized by physicians who just don’t know much about snakebites.” An average copperhead victim gets between six and 10 vials of antivenom, but treatments vary depending on the bite, Greene said. If left untreated, a bite can cause significant issues. In one of Greene’s former cases, he met an avid triathlete in her 30s many weeks after she received a copperhead bite on the foot. Unfortunately, she did not receive antivenom after the bite, and by the time Greene saw her, it was too late. “She can’t stand for long periods of time without getting pain and swelling. She can’t run, and she absolutely can’t compete. Her bite mismanagement severely impacted her life,” Greene wrote to The Post.

First steps after a bite Greene outlined steps to follow after receiving a venomous snake bite:

Arrange to get to the hospital as quickly as possible.
That may mean calling a friend or 911. Call 911 for any
severe symptoms, and do not drive yourself.

Remove any constrictive clothing and jewelry.

Elevate the affected extremity. Do not place the
affected extremity below heart level.

Take a picture of the snake if you can do it safely. Do not
bring the snake, whether dead or alive. Deceased snakes
can still envenomate.

Do not do any of the following: tourniquets, lymphatic
bandage, pressure immobilization, cut and suck, extrac-
tion device, electrical stimulation or packing the extremity
in ice.

Minimizing copperhead threats near your home Snakes will seek out areas with appropriate shelter, food and water. Here are ways to make your property less appealing to copperheads, according to Kimberly Wyatt, assistant professor of biology at Good Samaritan College in Ohio: l Maintain a neat yard by trimming your lawn, clearing excessive vegetation, and picking up objects (including toys) and debris that may provide cover. l Set woodpiles at the far end of your yard and keep shrubbery trimmed. Most snake bites occur when people do not see the snake — pay close attention to your surroundings when doing yard work. l Remove or relocate bird feeders away from your home, and feed pets indoors to prevent attracting rodents, a food source for copperheads. l Eliminate sources of standing water, and limit excessive watering. l If you see a copperhead, give it space. Attempting to kill a snake increases your risk of being bitten. Instead, a spray from a garden hose will encourage it to leave. Keep an eye out for copperheads, big and small, when outside. If you leave them alone, they’ll leave you alone. Copperheads are not aggressive snakes.

TOP: A copperhead rests on a walkway on Bull Run Mountain in western Prince William County, Va. The colors of the snake match the brick. ABOVE: Mark Khosravi of K2C Wildlife Encounters captured a copperhead with tongs and a hook near Burke, Va. The snake was later relocated.

J.D. KLEOPFER, VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF WILDLIFE RESOURCES COURTESY OF CINDY BEASLEY LEFT: A rare two-headed copperhead was found in a yard near Woodbridge, Va., in 2018. RIGHT: Pets also suffer copperhead bites. This dog named Macy was bitten on the snout near Richmond. Macy made a full recovery.

The Washington Post - USA (2022-06-07)

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