Think Turtle and watch out for turtle hatchlings

It’s turtle hatchling season and that means it’s a busy time of year for a turtle conservation group.

The Think Turtle Conservation Initiative, founded in 2018 and based in Bancroft, is a volunteer group engaged in awareness initiatives and species recovery efforts to protect Ontario’s eight turtle species and their habitat.

In the spring, many people are aware to watch for turtles on roads as they make their way to nesting grounds but Think Turtle’s founder and managing director Kelly Wallace says from now through mid-October, hatchlings are emerging from the nest.

Many are so tiny (the size of a loonie) you may not even realize it’s a turtle.

Wallace says painted turtles lay as few as seven to thirteen eggs while a snapping turtle nest could contain up to 100.

However, the hatchlings’ survival rate in the wild is less than one per cent.

“The fact that they actually made it through the initial predation when the nest was laid and now they’ve made it through the incubation period so now you’ve got, like, your best chance to, aiming for future generations of turtles. So, trying to keep an eye out for the hatchlings, like the more that can be saved and helped and everything and get them safely to water, again, it just increases the chance of species recovery.”

Wallace says they assist people all across Ontario with questions about what to do with turtles they find.

They also hear stories from people who help turtles.

“We had a couple that were driving across this causeway that we keep an eye out for. And the problem is that you’d have to be there 24/7 to intercept, you know, a nest hatching out because a five-minute window can make such a difference. Anyways, they happened to be driving past and they saw a hatchling on the road so they pulled into the parking lot and then went along to the causeway and just because of that they actually ended up saving like 33 hatchlings that, you know, a good part of that nest probably would’ve ended up on the road.”

Wallace says turtle populations are also declining due to habitat loss, pollution, poaching and road mortality so they’re working to raise awareness about conservation efforts.

Most of the turtle species in Ontario are threatened or endangered.

“People that, you know, pull safely off a road and help a turtle across the road, you know, helping that one turtle may not seem like a big deal but it is because, just that, may be the defining action that actually helps that turtle survive this turtle season to the next turtle season.”

Even adult turtles are on the move at this time of year as they head to their winter habitat.

Wallace says they also field many calls about injured turtles.

They direct those enquiries to the province’s only turtle hospital housed at the Ontario Turtle Conservation Centre located in Peterborough.

The OTCC not only provides medical care for turtles at no charge, it has turtle taxi volunteers to assist with transportation from anywhere in Ontario should you not be able to drive the turtle to the hospital.

Wallace, who has had a lifelong fascination with turtles, founded the Think Turtle initiative after getting involved with the fight to end the snapping turtle hunt in Ontario.

The province banned the hunting of snapping turtles in 2017.

Think Turtle fundraises through the sale of awareness items like shirts, signs and magnets.

To learn more about Think Turtle Conservation Initiative, visit thinkturtle.ca.