It’s Photo Hunt time, and this week, we are flexible to talk about anything we want to, as long as it is something we 
love
And well, if that’s the case, you know what I’m going to talk about, right?
This river terrapin looks sleepy because it has just been anesthetized for a non-invasive non-sacrificial surgical procedure to determine its sex. The procedure is called laparascopy. We administered some Ketamil according to its body weight and then allowed it 5 to 10 minutes to fall asleep.
After it has completely knocked out, we make a small incision (about 2cm) near its leg, and insert a laparascope (an inverted telescope) into its body cavity to look for its reproductive organ (either a testis or an ovary). I blogged about the entire sexing procedure on my previous blog.
And in case you’re wondering, yes, the sex of a river terrapin, as with any other reptiles, is determined by the temperature in which the eggs were incubated. Cooler temperatures produce males, and warmer temperatures produce females.
Updated: This particular terrapin hatchling was a male, as with many of the others that we sexed, due to the low temperatures at the hatchery on campus 
It’s Photo Hunt time, peeps and this week’s theme is SMELLY.
I couldn’t think of a “smelly” picture when I dropped by TNChick’s site to check the theme for this week, but when I got to bed at night, an idea came to me. Just like that *snaps fingers* And knowing that I would have something to share with you guys, I went to bed a happy girl
Now, the following picture shows a river terrapin hatchling which was found dead in its shell. Well, carcasses are usually smelly, aren’t they?!
River terrapin eggs are oblong in shape, and once laid, the eggs would need to be incubated for about 60-80 days. During the incubation period, the fertilized egg would gradually form an embryo, then a fetus before the hatchling comes out of its shell. The egg yolk provides most of the needed nutrients during the developmental stages.
But how did a fetus die in the shell?
From a few hours after the egg is laid until the last trimester, the embryo will start to form. During this stage, it is very important to cease handling the egg because any “wrong” movement will result in the egg yolk suffocating the developing embryo. Which was possibly why this particular hatchling did not make it.
So when we excavated the styrofoam boxes in which the eggs were incubated, we found some dead terrapins that that did not hatch successfully. And my, these rotten eggs were very smelly, and it was only a matter of a few minutes before the flies started to feast on them!
More more posts on the river terrapins:
You may want to read the first and second announcements for an idea of how Terrapin Independence Day was to be celebrated.
The opening ceremony started about 30 minutes late due to some unforeseen circumstances, but we were glad that most of our invitees were present — the Head Master of SK Mangkok, the teachers and students, the egg collectors, one of our sponsors and the Director of State Department of Wildlife and National Parks.
After the short opening ceremony and an informational talk on the river terrapins, we proceeded by awarding food hampers to egg collectors who have willingly sold us the eggs they collected during the terrapin nesting season. Pak Cik Rani (pic below) and his brother are hired whenever we needed to do some trapping or tracking work in the river. His wife was hired during the terrapin nesting season to buy as many eggs as possible from the other egg collectors in the village and then incubate the eggs.
We had something very special this year — we had a boat parade! We provided each participant a Malaysian flag and they were encouraged to decorate their own boats with other natural resources. The most original and creative boat wins
Upon arrival at the release site, Tebing Pasir Pak Lah Teh, my colleagues did some final measurements of the terrapins that were to be released, while our guests entertained themselves. We distributed marking schemes to our judges and while waiting for the terrapins to be ready for release, our judges evaluated the decorated boats. My other colleague also gave a short briefing to our invited dignitaries on how to hold the terrapins without being scratched.
When they were ready, the terrapins were released! The first round of release was of course, done by the VIPs (and media). Then it was our turn (from the university). My terrapin went into the river very quickly
There you go!
You may view some pictures in my Flickr account.
The story appeared in the papers two days ago — Freedom for 50 terrapins, 21 September 2007 (also a picture of the winner of the boat parade and how he won the judges over).
