The turtle ponds at UT Austin are both a sort of secret and a standout.
They are in a quiet pocket north of UT’s iconic tower, a place usually bustling with activity.
“For me, it’s kind of like how I guess New Yorkers would feel about the Central Park where it’s like in the middle of like a jungle of just concrete. You find this, like, little nice oasis of just like nature,” said UT Austin third-year RTF student Thang Tran. “And it’s really nice to just sit here and be in the space.”
Dan Cook, executive director of planning, design and construction at UT, said the turtle pond “is my family’s favorite place on campus.”
Cook is currently leading a project at the ponds that has them nearly empty of water — and completely empty of turtles.
“Yeah, we knew it would get folks’ attention,” Cook said.
That’s why UT put up big orange signs along the tall, temporary fence now surrounding the four little connected swimming pools. The signs address the big question: Where are the turtles?
“I was a little curious as to what was going to happen to the turtles,” Tran said.
Where are the turtles?
“The turtles are currently on vacation, and they’re up at some ponds that we have up at the Pickle Research Campus,” said Travis LaDuc, curator of herpetology at the Biodiversity Collections at UT.
The UT Austin Pickle Research Campus ponds aren’t really a publicly accessible oasis like the ones at the main campus. And actually, they don’t usually even house turtles.
But during construction, they have 100 turtles that a crew pulled out of the main campus ponds a few weeks ago.
“We had a small little army of about eight or so students, myself and another faculty member,” LaDuc said. “And we’re out with dip nets walking along the edge, also jumping in the water with waders and grabbing these turtles by hand. And that first day we pulled out 60 turtles.”
The other 40 quickly caught onto the situation and weren’t quite so easy to catch.
“The really mucky part came the next two nights when they brought in a crew to start removing sediment,” LaDuc said. “And once they removed the water and some of the sediment, we were able to get the remaining turtles.”
Why did the turtles need to move?
Basically, crews need to fix leaking at the UT Austin ponds. The patch jobs of the past aren’t cutting it, so there needed to be a full waterproofing.
Cook says it’s a pretty basic job — just one where they needed some advice from a herpetologist.
“The biggest concern was to make sure that the turtles were back in the ponds by spring when we start seeing mating and then the females with eggs trying to find places to lay their eggs,” LaDuc said. “And so the whole goal was to turn this project around so we get these guys back in by February.”
He also hopes this timing means the turtles will be back before any freezing weather.
The last time the pools needed to be drained for fixing was in 2014. But their history on campus goes back much further — to its very beginnings, in fact.
The history of the UT turtle ponds
Cook’s role as head of planning, design and construction means he has a big interest in the university’s infrastructure.
“I’m in love with the architecture and the Paul Cret plan and all these big things,” Cook said.
Paul Cret designed the UT Tower in the 1930s and put together the university’s master plan, which included the turtle ponds.
“From a historic architecture perspective, most people think about Hogg Memorial Auditorium or the Main Building or some of the other historic, you know, classical buildings on campus,” Cook said. “But the turtle pond is in that category as well too because it’s part of the external spaces that make the buildings what they are.”
The role of the turtle ponds on campus
The primary role of the ponds may be what Tran first discovered during his tour of campus during his summer orientation.
“I just kind of like felt that this place was kind of like the place that I would come to a lot,” Tran said. “The tree in the shade is nice, but like, having that little just bit of like, wildlife does help for sure … It’s really nice to see them sunbathe.”
But there’s another, more directly academic, benefit.
Justin Havird, an associate professor in the Department of Integrative Biology, advises a group of students who are doing research focused on what’s living in and on the turtles.
“So we come out, we collect the turtles,” Havird said. “We use like a cotton swab and swab their shells, their skin, their mouths and their cloaca,” the opposite end of the turtle from the mouth. “The wonderful cloaca opening — it’s like it’s everything you can imagine and more.”
As part of the research, the group microchipped some turtles, which are guaranteed a trip back to the main campus ponds. But some of the 100 pulled out will stay at the Pickle Campus.
The turtle pond population
“When we drained the ponds back in 2014, we brought back about 65 turtles. So we did the quick math on our head. And we had a significant increase in numbers,” said herpetologist Travis LaDuc.
LaDuc doesn’t think that’s all due to breeding.
“I think we’re seeing a fair number of released pets into the ponds, and that’s kind of something that we’re not terribly excited about,” he said.
LaDuc loves that people know of the UT turtle ponds as a safe refuge for turtles — but there is a capacity issue.
“And adding any more is kind of starting to stress everybody [the turtles] out,” LaDuc said.
So this pond resealing project is a reset in more ways than one. Now, in addition to those in the research project, all of the turtles will also be marked.
“The same sort of microchip that they use for dogs and cats is going to the turtles as well,” LaDuc said. “And the idea is that we’re going to mark everyone that returns to the ponds so we can get a better idea of the number of new turtles that are coming in from places that didn’t originate with us.”
The mystery
The UT turtle ponds are currently home to two species of turtles: red-eared sliders and Texas river cooters. But the ponds also used to house some snapping turtles.
“So, unfortunately, the snapping turtles kind of disappeared,” LaDuc said. “I think after the last freeze they kind of up and left. And so we don’t know where they went. We knew that there had been some here, and previously we returned some back in 2014. But they’re nowhere to be found.”
It’s true that turtles don’t have a reputation for moving quickly. But LaDuc says they can make decent progress on foot when they put their mind to it.
“And probably, you know, overnight, they could certainly make their way down to Waller Creek, which is a little over a quarter mile from here,” he said.
Have you seen snapping turtles near you? We’d love to hear from you.
Your chance to get involved
The turtle pond research that started at UT recently is evolving into a bigger project, something Havird hopes will involve turtle ponds at other campuses across the country and beyond.
“Anybody can get involved with this research,” Havird said. “There’s a very low barrier to getting involved. We want to involve as many people who want to. So just shoot me an email and we’ll get you hooked up.”
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