Today I went to BioBlitz and was placed in the Herps/ Reptiles group. I love reptiles and I was really excited to learn about the different species that lived in the gardens. Overall, BioBlitz was definitely fun for me because I used to work at a nature preserve on Long Island and I would help collect data from the birds, insects, and fish that lived in the marsh in the preserve. A lot of the traps that they used during BioBlitz to catch turtles were very familiar to me!

The most important thing I learned was that sliding snapper turtles are actually not native to this area in New York! The painted turtle species is actually the native turtle, however people dumped the snapper turtles here and they reproduced and took over the area. We caught so many snapping turtles that you would think they were the native turtles but alas that is not the case.

I found it quite amusing watching our group leaders try to extract the snapping turtles out of the traps. The turtles were very aggressive and snapped at everyone they looked at. They also held their mouths open as an act of aggression which was both unnerving to be close to and at the same time amusing since they looked like they were smiling!

Overall, BioBlitz was a fun and interesting experience. I will definitely be taking a trip back up to the gardens since it was so beautiful there.