Ask a Ranger: Wave the Loggerhead's 50th Birthday Bash

Click the player above to listen to the episode. Read below to learn about the terminology used in the podcast and scroll further down to see photos of the turtles.

Turtle Podcast Terminology

On this episode of Ask a Ranger podcast, Ranger Crystal and Ranger Jess talk to a number of different turtle species native to North Carolina (plus, Shirley the alligator snapping turtle, who is from further south). The rangers use some words that may be confusing, so let's break it down here:

Plastron: the bottom shell of the turtle

Carapace: the upper shell of the turtle

Beak: the hard outer covering of their jaw or their mouth

Biome: a large naturally occurring community of flora and fauna occupying a major habitat

Ectothermic: cold-blooded

Brumation: the hibernation-like state that cold-blooded animals utilize during the very cold weather

Terrapene: the genus box turtles fall under

Ecosystem: a community of living organisms and non-living components such as air, water, minerals and soil

Barnacles: a marine crustacean with an outer shell that will attach itself permanently to different types of surfaces (i.e. piers, boats, loggerhead sea turtle shells)

A-frames: a wave shaped like a peak that breaks both left and right, equally

Meet the Ask a Ranger Podcast Turtles

Terrance, the box turtle

Terrapene carolina carolina, J. Phillips

Snooty, the eastern common snapping turtle

Chelydra serpentina, K. Bischof

Tolba, the yellow-bellied slider

Trachemys scripta scripta, J. Brown

Mikah, the musk turtle

Sternotherus odoratus, J. Wyche

Shirley, the alligator snapping turtle

Macrochelys temminckii, Courtesy of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Wave, the loggerhead sea turtle

Caretta caretta, R. Newman

About the Ask a Ranger Podcast

Ranger Crystal and Ranger Jess host the North Carolina State Parks Ask a Ranger Podcast series.

Email them at askaranger@ncparks.gov.

For a full list of episodes, visit our BuzzSprout page.

Click here to subscribe to the podcast with Apple iTunes.

Click here to subscribe to the podcast with RSS feed.