Interns help keep track of state's official reptile

Jeff Popp and Julia Grisar are turtle trackers.

Interns with the Terrapin Institute, the college students spend their summer days creeping through sand and muck, following footprints left by Maryland's official reptile.

From May through July, female diamondback terrapins emerge from the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries to lay eggs. These are the turtles Mr. Popp and Ms. Grisar want to find - and tag.

"We're trying to get an idea of how many of these animals there are and where they are," said Mr. Popp, a senior at Towson University.

Diamondback terrapins prefer to lay their eggs on sandy, beachlike terrain, but a...