Why did the turtle cross the road? No, this isn’t a setup for a joke, it is a real question residents of northern Illinois ask as they see more turtles slowly traveling across streets.
Sometimes a turtle will get lucky, and minimal traffic allows them to cross easily. Other times, a good Samaritan may exit their vehicle and safely airlift the turtle (always in the direction it was headed) across the road. And yet other times, the turtle is not so lucky, and it faces a collision with the tire of a vehicle, which too often results in the death of the turtle.
So why are we seeing so many turtles? The answer is twofold. First, we built our communities in turtle habitat. Second, populations of some of these species are thriving as we begin to see the influence of decades of conservation efforts such as land protection and habitat restoration.
Although traditional conservation efforts benefit many of our native turtle species, some species, such as the Blanding’s turtle, already have been so greatly affected that they need further intervention. The Blanding’s turtle is a semi-aquatic species that is listed as an Illinois endangered species. Because its primary habitat is wetlands, the loss of these vital natural areas over the past century has been devastating to the population.
Thirty years ago, the McHenry County Conservation District began a Blanding’s turtle head-start program in an effort to grow the existing population. Gravid female turtles (those carrying eggs) are caught and brought into the district’s Wildlife Resource Center, where they lay their eggs. The eggs are then incubated, and the mother turtle is released where she was found. Wild turtle nests face high rates of predation, so incubating the eggs gives them a better chance of hatching.
But incubating the eggs isn’t the final step of the head-start program. Turtle hatchlings are easy prey for everything from mammals to birds and even fish. Only 1 in 100 turtle eggs hatched in the wild reach adulthood. To increase these odds, turtles in the head-start program are reared in the safety of the district’s facility over the winter. A consistent source of food allows them to grow more quickly than they would in the wild, so a 1-year-old head-start Blanding’s turtle could be as large as a 2- to 4-year-old wild turtle! The turtles are then weighed, measured, photographed and microchipped before being released at district sites.
In the 30 years of this program, the district has head-started almost 1,000 Blanding’s turtles. Staff members continue to record encounters with previously head-started turtles, some being found healthy and thriving over 20 years after being released. Through the head-start process, multiple head-started female Blanding’s turtles have been found years later as gravid adults, and their hatchlings have become the second generation of the head-start program.
You also can help Blanding’s turtles. Supporting the preservation of vital wetland habitat and reducing road collisions by paying extra attention when driving will help to ensure the survival of this species for generations to come.