One day before I left the Behler Chelonian Conservation Center, we went hiking at the Matilija (pronounced Ma-Til-La-Ha) Canyon @ Ojai.
We were supposed to be looking for Pacific pond turtles (Actinemys marmorata) on our way up the creek, though I’m not very fond of waterfalls. I remember when I was in my first year in university, we went on a field trip to a waterfall to collect water samples and invertebrates, etc. And when we were moving up the waterfall, one of my roommates slipped and all I could say yell was, “SOMEBODY! HOLD HER!” And as if “somebody upstairs” heard me, my roommate managed to stop herself from falling off a cliff!
Anyway, the Matilija Creek was very beautiful and we took about 2 hours before we found the first pond turtle. The turtles were very quick, and they immediately went into hiding the moment they heard us. And we had to look for them under huge rocks and in crevices.
We also found a pond turtle hatchling! 
Which simply meant that the environment was good enough for the adults to breed, which is good news Especially when all you hear about these days are the declining turtle populations all over the world.
So in total, the four of us spotted 10 pond turtles during our hike, but we only managed to catch 4. We took some pictures of the turtles, and those pictures will be archived in the database for future use.
More pictures taken at the Matilija Canyon here.
Up next: CTTC-Valley Turtle Show @ Woodlands Hills.
So from Chattanooga, Tennessee, I went to Ojai (pronounced oh-hai), southern California. Or specifically, to the Behler Chelonian Conservation Center. I just realized, when I was there, that the center isn’t open to the public 
The Behler Chelonian Conservation Center is home to 22 species of turtles and tortoises — the Egyptian tortoises, Indian star tortoises, spider tortoises, pancake tortoises, huge Burmese blank mountain tortoises and Galapagos tortoises!
Some tortoises had to be taken into the property at night because it was too cold for them to be out. So at about 5-something, we started taking everybody in. Similarly, every morning, we took them outside for some sun.
I was at the Behler Chelonian Conservation Center for 4 days, and I did mostly food preparation — dandelion greens, kales, strawberries, melons and carrots. I was surprised that the tortoises were so attracted to red-coloured foods!
Don’t these strawberries look mouth-watering?
More pictures taken at the Behler Chelonian Conservation Center here.
Up next: Looking for pond turtles @ Matilija Canyon.
This pretty river is where Dr Wilson from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga conducts his studies on the riverine turtles. The first time I was out in the river, the weather wasn’t too kind, and we had some extremely strong winds and choppy water and I thought, for a moment, that we were in the sea!
But of course, after spending a few days in the river, I kind of fell in love with it 
Anyway, the basking traps that we set out trapped about 250 turtles (mostly red-eared sliders, Trachemys scripta) in about a week. The baited hoop nets, on the other hand, did not trap any turtles.
In order to trap many turtles with the basking traps, the weather must be warm enough for the turtles to climb onto the traps. But if the weather was cloudy and if a storm was rolling in (there was once when we were in the river and a storm was supposed to roll in. It did not come, but we had isolated showers instead), the turtles wouldn’t be basking, and we wouldn’t find them in the traps the next day.
I am trying to arrange with my sponsors to see if it is possible that I return to Chattanooga in July for a Conservation Biology Conference. If that materializes, I hope I’d have the chance to visit the Tennessee River Gorge again!
