Turtles Lead The Way

TURTLES LEAD THE WAY

By Kelly Wallace

Occasionally, we hear grumbles about turtles getting a lot of attention. Turtles grab headlines and are newsworthy, but not everyone gets why, and fare dues none of us is entirely knowledgeable about every species. So why all the fuss about turtles?

Yes, turtles are out there, and during nesting season, depending on where your travels take you in Ontario, you may see what you perceive to be many between mid-May and mid-July, especially during June, but even so, the numbers are far from their historical distribution. Turtle populations have declined dramatically over the last few decades, primarily due to human impact, and the race is on to save this species from extinction.

Unsustainable Losses
Turtles are a provincially and federally designated species at risk, and for good reason. Efforts to protect turtles are not because they are more important than any other animal. They are because turtles are more challenged than most species to repopulate and battle abysmal odds to outpace losses their species cannot sustain.

At one end of the spectrum are the adult turtles that are often victims of road mortality, habitat loss, poaching, and other factors that could include boat strikes, pollution, animal attacks, disease, the changing climate, invasive species, terrain and infrastructure struggles. The adults are crucial because, as the breeding pool, they are necessary to propagate the species. Some turtle species, such as Blanding’s and Snapping turtles, can take 17 to 20 years to reach sexual maturity. It is difficult for turtles to achieve these ages with such perils on and off the roads. Mid-spectrum are the juvenile turtles. They are easy prey for predators and, as they begin exploring, are susceptible to many of the same difficulties adults face. At the other end of the spectrum are nests and hatchlings. In the wild, the survival rates for both are less than 1% due to predation, weather events, accidental disturbances, and other factors.

For these reasons and many more, it is imperative to ensure as many adult turtles as possible survive to produce offspring that will reach adulthood, enabling the turtle species to maintain its earthly presence.

Helping Ontario’s Turtles
This is why grassroots efforts have become vital to raising awareness, helping turtles negotiate the challenges they face, and ensuring their species’ future. Strength in numbers has undoubtedly assisted many turtles in getting safely across roads, injured turtles in getting medical care, nests in getting protected from predation, and hatchlings in getting the ideal start to adulthood.

Due to their size and demeanor, an opportunity exists to help turtles through on-the-ground initiatives we cannot use with other species. One of the most effective approaches is for citizens to assist turtles across the road when it is safe to do so. This is just not possible with most other animals. It is not like someone with the best intentions can walk up to a porcupine or raccoon and carry them or coax them across the road. This would end poorly.

With more and more people understanding they can be instrumental in helping injured turtles get a second chance, the highly regarded Ontario Turtle Conservation Centre (OTCC), home of Ontario’s turtle hospital in Peterborough, represents a beckon of hope whereby turtles injured most often from vehicle strikes have the best chance of recovering and returning to their natural habitat. The proof is in the number of turtles returned to their point of origin each year. With an impressive 60% recovery rate, this speaks for itself. It only works if people take the time to see how they can help and why they should.

Conservation Is For Humanity
It is essential to shake off the notion that helping turtles is about protecting one species. Conservation efforts to help turtles preserve the complex and interwoven relationships between species of animals, plants, and microorganisms and the ecosystem they support and vice versa.

The species living within an ecosystem depend on each other; the decline of one species can directly and indirectly affect the entire ecosystem. Protecting all these interrelationships, most pointedly, benefits humanity. If a catalyst for initiating and inspiring efforts to safeguard this integral framework for life is helped by proactive efforts to help turtles, how amazing is that! We all have a vested interest in protecting the components of nature and nature as a whole for our future and generations to come.

Nature Is Selfless
The science is unwavering. In the last 50 years, the world’s amphibian, bird, fish, reptile, and mammal populations have declined by almost 70 percent. We urgently need to scale up efforts to protect vulnerable species, halt biodiversity and habitat loss, protect what’s left, and, where possible, restore what we’ve lost.

Because nature is primarily self-sufficient, it is expected always to find a way to compensate for damage sustained and threats it faces. This just isn’t so. The impact of human activities has made it so that nature needs a helping hand.

Under the umbrella of nature, animals, plants, microorganisms, forests, parcels of land, and bodies of water work for us 24/7, 365 days a year, doing what needs to be done to make life possible. Think about it: what do animals and plants get out of this? Nature is, without question, noble and selfless. It makes sacrifices and takes risks on our behalf to support our basic needs for survival, growth, health, security, well-being, and hope. We depend on the services and goods nature provides to meet the critical necessities of life. In the words of Sir David Attenborough, If we take care of nature, nature will take care of us.

Please take the time to understand the role biodiversity (variety of animals and plants) and ecosystems have in our daily lives. Single-species conservation may seem limited in scope, but nothing could be farther from the truth. Protecting nature and all its components is not just for a select few. It is a responsibility that belongs to all of us and includes everyone looking out for and caring for nature daily. If turtles help lead such efforts, that is a good thing!

To contact the author, e-mail thinkturtle@yahoo.com or visit the Think Turtle Conservation Initiative website at http://www.thinkturtle.ca

Newspaper Article (Print): Wallace, K. (2024, March 22). Turtles lead the way.
Bancroft This Week, p. 4 .

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