Did you know that snapping turles can live 100 years? Researchers with the Algonquin Turtle Project recently tracked Cujo, who was tagged in 1976 and has grown only 1cm in the intervening 38 years.
The Algonquin Wildlife Research Station has posted this and other interesting updates on their work at Algonquin Park. And while you’re there, please consider supporting their fundraising effort to keep the research station open.
The weather is warm, overcast, and humid – conditions that female snapping turtles in our region apparently consider ideal to unload their burden of eggs on the gravel shoulders of rural roads.
Yesterday afternoon HNPNC President Fiona Reid spotted several egg-laying turtles during one short drive:
On my way home from dropping my son at school yesterday I found three snapping turtles laying eggs along the side of the road. One was at a fast and quite busy intersection. A worker from Halton Hills Hydro was about to pick her up and move her with a shovel but I asked him to leave her as she had not finished laying eggs. Very grumpily he agreed, saying it would be my fault if she got hit. Well, the best pond was right behind her and I thought she might well turn around. I went home, grabbed supplies (signs, boards, tape etc) and headed back. I found another three turtles, 6 total. One was not laying (may have already done so). They were spread over about 2 km, so I drove back and forth checking on each one. They all faced the road when laying, but each one turned and went back away from the road, although one walked a long way along the bank before going into the forest. Now they are all safely in the ponds and woods!
My conclusion is that it is better not to move an egg-laying turtle but to see where she heads after she is done.
Club President Fiona Reid
Females don’t start breeding until they are 15-20 years old, so it’s no wonder the Snapping Turtle is listed as a special concern species both provincially and nationally.
Knowing that very few eggs survive intact to hatching, Fiona and I returned to the nest sites last evening to see what we could do to protect the eggs from scavengers.
We covered 5 nests with chicken wire and anchored them with rocks and dirt. Fiona has read that racoons hate mint, so we applied a liquid mixture of mint mixed with chili powder to two of the nests, and sprayed two more nests with Bitter Apple (a commercial products used to deter puppies from chewing). We sprayed both repellents on the fifth nest. We found four more nests and sprayed two of them but did not cover them with chicken wire; we left the last two completely unprotected as controls for our little study.
Fiona will continue to monitor the nests to see if our efforts pay off. Incubation time is heavily dependent on temperature, and in Halton Hills we are near the northern limit of their range so it may be another 90-120 days before the hatchlings emerge.
Spring time is a time of new life and new beginnings: trilliums bloom, maple buds burst and red fox kits playfully tussle. At this time adult turtles are also thinking of new life, as they search out mates, breed and lay eggs. Turtles are fascinating creatures: there is fossil evidence that turtles have been around for 200 million years, which means they existed alongside dinosaurs. And turtles survived whatever catastrophic event(s) that led to the extinction of 90% of plant and animal species, including dinosaurs1.
Turtles are tough and tenacious. But the last two hundred years has seen the human population grow exponentially and impact their way of life. We all know some of the changes they’ve faced: wetland draining and filling, hunting, removal from the wild, roads built through wetlands and other habitat, road mortality, intentional persecution (particularly of Eastern Snapping Turtles).
The effect of turtle road mortality in particular is compounded by the inherent biology of turtles. Turtles have a high egg and hatchling mortality rate with very few making it to adulthood. Also, turtles take years to reach sexual maturity, in some cases 15 years or more. So when adult turtles are hit by vehicles, the impact on the population is much more severe than it would be on species which have greater reproductive success (e.g. raccoons). Tenacious turtles are still with us today, but population threats have led to 7 of the 8 native Ontario turtle species being considered species at risk of extinction or of disappearing from the province.
A critical time of the year for turtles is approaching: nesting time. Nesting occurs between late May and July and results in turtles moving around to find breeding partners and nesting habitat. In doing so, they may walk across roads, especially roads near wetlands. They also may use the sandy or gravely edges of roads to nest. While turtles may cross roads from April to October, their movement is at its peak in early summer.
Yes, turtles are tough, but they could use some helping hands. They haven’t evolved to handle humans in automobiles and earth-moving equipment… or maybe it’s more accurate to say that humans haven’t evolved to handle turtles. But some advances are happening right here in our watershed. In 2009, along a stretch of Highway 10 south of Orangeville where wetlands exist on both sides of the road, the Ministry of Transportation installed fencing to keep turtles off Highway 10 and direct them through a culvert under the road.
As early summer approaches, and you watch new life unfold, think of the prehistoric reptiles around you, these creatures of an ancient lineage, learning to cope in a new world with asphalt roads, fences, culverts, and two-tonne vehicles driving 100km/h through their home range. Imagine a turtle on a road shoulder about to cross, its eyes only 3 or so inches off the ground – such a limited field of vision – and knowing it will take some time to get across. I’ve seen a turtle stand on the road shoulder, faced as if it was about to cross, with cars whipping by, and looking like it was trying to find the right moment and work up the courage to cross2. The adult females of at least two of our turtle species risk their lives on dangerous roads due to something called nest-fidelity: the desire to return to where they were born to lay their eggs in the same place. So, many of the turtles you encounter on roads will be females carrying eggs or that have just nested. Like parents of other species, they are willing to put their lives on the line for their young.
So consider lending a hand to the turtles this nesting season. Drive slowly and scan the road, especially around wetlands, and if it is safe to do so, help turtles across roads. Be careful with Eastern Snapping Turtles which can bite (The Toronto Zoo and Kawartha Turtle Trauma Centre have youtube videos available on how to move a turtle across a road). If you encounter an injured turtle, contact the Toronto Wildlife Centre which admits injured turtles for rehabilitation. Consider sending observations of live or dead turtles to an organisation such as the Toronto Zoo’s Adopt-a-pond which runs the Ontario Turtle Tally.
Notes
1Some scientists still consider our birds to be descendants of dinosaurs, although recent research suggests otherwise. 2I was able to get this turtle across, but it took me a few minutes to find the right moment, and I had a much better view (and a bright jacket).
by Leanne Wallis Credit Valley Conservation
serving Brampton, Georgetown, Milton, Acton & surrounding areas
Meetings are held at St Alban the Martyr Anglican Church
537 Main St,.
Glen Williams
On L7G 3T1
