June 17th, 2006
turtle crossing day
Today was what we refer to as a “turtle crossing day”. Turtles were on the move on the roadways that border marshes, ponds and lakes. Every year around this time, there will be a day when it seems that large numbers of female turtles decide it’s time to make the journey to a suitable nest site. Unfortunately, with the growing network of roads, many cutting through or bordering wetlands and waterways, turtles are forced to make perilous crossings in order to find just the right spot to deposit their eggs. Many turtles will dig a nest hole in the gravel shoulder at the side of a highway, or even in the crushed stone along railway lines. Others may scale seemingly impossible hillsides to find a site that, with a bit of luck, will not be discovered by a fox, raccoon or other predator.
Of course, road crossings are extremely hazardous for turtles. Their pace is too slow to make a dash for the far side. When frightened or injured, a turtle will usually pull its head and legs into its shell and remain motionless on the highway. Contrary to what some people may believe, turtle shells are not particularly tough — or at least, not tough enough to withstand being run over by a vehicle. Countless numbers of turtles are injured or killed on highways across the country each year. In some areas, naturalists, biologists, municipal road crews, or other interested persons, have identified the most hazardous crossings and these are sometimes posted with turtle crossing signs in an attempt to create public awareness. It helps, but still the loss of life is huge. Worse yet, many of the turtles never make it to a nest site before being killed on the road, so it’s not just one turtle that is lost, but the next generation as well. Some turtle species, such as the Blandings Turtle (Emydoidea blandingi), take well over a decade to reach maturity, so when an adult female turtle is killed, the loss is great, as the odds of making it to that age are already so very slim. Every female that makes it to maturity is a survivor in every sense of the word — so to see one killed on the road is always tragic.
We do what we can to try to help turtles out when we see them attempting to make a hazardous crossing. If it looks like the turtle is doing well and the road is clear, and the turtle doesn’t have too far to go, we leave it to complete the journey on its own. It’s really best not to intervene as we might frighten or confuse the turtle and cause it to turn back in the direction from which it came. However, if we see a turtle stranded in the middle of a road, and if we aren’t putting ourselves into danger, or parking in a place which could be hazardous to oncoming traffic — we will try to give the turtle a bit of help to complete its mission. That often means just standing by to watch for danger and intervene if necessary. But sometimes we may have to pick up the turtle and move it to safety. We try to do that as quickly and safely as possible.
Painted Turtles (Chrysemys picta) are easy to move — they may hiss in anger, but are relatively cooperative. On the other hand, Snapping Turtles (Chelydra serpentina) are tougher to deal with. Most are very defiant and can deliver a very serious bite. They’re much more agile than might be guessed, being able to launch themselves forward at a surprising speed. We approach them from behind, usually with a piece of plastic sheeting which we keep in the back of the truck for such times. Using the sheeting, we grip the shell at the sides, keeping hands well away from the turtle’s head as its neck can be extended and turned quite far to the rear. We sometimes move large turtles on top of a shovel which we slide beneath and then skid off the road. We try to move the turtle in the direction which it seems to be headed — not always an easy thing to figure out when the turtle is wandering down the center of the road. [A cautionary note for all turtle movers! Each year, we hear of at least one person being killed or seriously injured while attempting to move a turtle to safety. If you’re going to move a turtle, take every precaution to ensure personal safety!]
I moved the Painted Turtle in the above photo to safety this afternoon. It was crossing from the shoreline of a lake, over to a very steep, rocky hillside along a winding highway in cottage country. The situation seemed risky for the turtle, so we stopped to move it to safety. That just took a second and as I set the turtle on the shoulder, it immediately began clambering up the hill — which was actually more like a small cliff. She had about a 30 foot almost vertical climb ahead of her. I chose this particular photo as I think it best illustrates just how agile and determined these turtles can be when it comes to climbing hills. We are often astounded to find unearthed turtle nests in incredible places. There’s an old railway line trail where we hike which has a stone causeway that is dizzyingly high above a small lake and marsh. Snapping turtles somehow manage to scale this almost vertical obstacle in order to dig their nests in the gravel which must seem an ideal nest site to them. We’ve never seen one of these big turtles climbing the hill, but it must be quite a sight. The trail from the bottom to the top is well worn from the repeated clambering of many turtles.
Today’s turtle also had a hitchhiker along for the ride. You can see it at the rear of the shell in the above photo (click on that image for a larger view), or see below. The hitchhiker is a leech that is fastened to the shell. Turtles often have leeches adhering to their shells, or to their skin around the head and neck. This leech hasn’t been out of the water for too long. After the turtle is on land for awhile, the leech will curl up into a compact ball-shape in order to conserve its moisture while it waits out the return to the body of water where the turtle makes its home.
Tags: Painted Turtle, Chrysemys picta, Snapping Turtle, Chelydra serpentina, Blandings Turtle, Emydoidea blandingi
June 17th, 2006 at 11:41 pm
Inteesting post Bev, I’ve found numbers of turtle shells between rail lines, apparently they didn’t realise they had to climb over another line to continue their journey, and died there.
June 17th, 2006 at 11:43 pm
I meant interesting of course, the old fingers haven’t limbered up yet!
June 18th, 2006 at 12:30 am
Duncan — I have a friend who used to walk along a railway line through a marsh and mentioned discovering something to the same effect.
June 18th, 2006 at 9:56 am
When he was about 9 years old, my brother had caught a rather big turtle in the pond next to our house and he had built this immense pen in our yard, under a big tree, complet with a water basin, and a fence, for the turtle. The turtle escaped and he found it again. He went to the hardware store and had a small hole drilled in the rim of the shell and tied the turtle with a small chain (what an horror story, I know, but he was a kid…). Well, that turtle escaped nevertheless. No chain, no fence could keep this creature in a pen. And I was always amazed at the strenght it must have taken such a creature to break her own shell.And I would never have thought of turltes as so strong. That’s what your picture this morning reminded me of. ‘Touché la tortue’ is how my brother had called it. But the turtle, just like the tv character that bore that name, was smarter than us. And that’s good.
June 18th, 2006 at 12:54 pm
Suzanne – Turtles are incredibly strong for their size. I never cease to be amazed at how they can dig a nest hole into earth and gravel that is so highly compacted that a person with a spade shovel and a pick-axe would have a tough time excavating. And yet these turtles manage with only their clawed feet. Even a small turtle can propel itself forward with such great force. They really are incredible creatures.
June 18th, 2006 at 4:09 pm
What a great story, both for the travels that turtles take to get to their choice nesting grounds, and for your care and concern for their safety. I can’t imagine the strength and stamina of these creatures. Wouldn’t it be great if the speed limit on these turtle crossing roads were lowered during crossing season? A minor inconvenience could save so many turtle lives.
June 19th, 2006 at 1:32 pm
RA – thanks! Turtles really are such incredible creatures. Fortunately for them, we live in a fairly “turtle enlightened” area. On Saturday, we noticed that the vehicle behind us slowed and carefully went around a couple of turtles which we had also moved around to bypass (we couldn’t stop due to lack of shoulder on the road). Also, we frequently see others moving turtles as well. Last summer, we saw one young couple — probably just teenagers — trying to figure out how to move a very large and ornery Snapping Turtle. They were holding a stick in front of it as bait and the snapper was lunging at it, and in that way, the turtle was slowly but quite successfully being lured to safety. Nice to see so many people taking an interest.
April 9th, 2007 at 3:37 pm
About a year and a half ago I was camping up Lossae Creek in the Coos area and I came upon a strange turtle. I went to touch it and it literally “snapped” my index finger and middle finger off. Never could find them. Went to the ER and had my hand stitched up. They ARE incredibly strong.
April 9th, 2007 at 7:17 pm
Maddie – Wow, that’s pretty terrible! Sorry to hear about your finger! But, yes, some species of turtles can *really* bite — especially the snapping turtles. I’ve heard of a few people who have been badly bitten by snapping turtles. A couple of times when I’ve been moving them off of roadways, they have grabbed onto shovel handles and the like so hard that you can’t get them loose until they decide to let go.
June 19th, 2007 at 9:19 am
[…] I had thought to write about something else this morning, but my original post was pre-empted by this one as it seems more timely. Yes, this is a recycled photo from last year’s post about turtle crossings. I briefly considered using one of my photos of crushed turtles from my Ribbon of Death roadkilled animal online gallery, but thought better of it as it might be a bit of a shocker to anyone stumbling upon my blog. So, you get the “nice” turtle photo instead of the reality. As turtle photography goes, the truth of the matter is that I get a hell of a lot more opportunities to photograph dead turtles than live ones — in fact, I’d say the odds are running somewhere about 3-to-1 in favour of all of the dead turtles seen along highways. […]
July 4th, 2007 at 12:09 pm
I originally was looking for sites on turtles because of a vid I saw on Ebaumsworld.com of a turtle being persistant in telling a cat that it meant business. I was curious as to what species it was, and was intrigued by the photo of a leech on a turtle. After reading the blog, it reminded me of my days as a kid when I’d find a turtle and keep it for a week and then release it. One of the most incredible things I can remember watching.. I was in my grandparents’ backyard, and the house had just been built, so, as sometimes happens, after the first big rain, parts of the backyard sank. Well, this is Heaven to small frogs (apparently). One night, I was watching the frogs, and I saw a turtle sitting very still in the bottom of the sunken part of the yard. And then the head snapped out and caught a small frog in midair and chomped it to bits and ate it. I was… ten, I think. Up to that point, I’d always given turtles veggies and catfood… never thought to use meat or live food. ~*~WARNING~*~ Holding a frog by the hind leg for the turtle to snap… is dangerous to your finger and thumb. (I still have all of mine, but it hurt!)
July 5th, 2007 at 9:45 am
Hi JayPix – Yes, turtles are pretty good hunters with plenty of aquatic creatures on the menu. I agree.. holding a frog for a turtle to snap at is never a good idea! Better to let them catch prey on their own.