The life history strategies of turtles rely on adults surviving for a long time. Turtles reach maturity at a late age, with some species requiring up to 20 years before they can reproduce. Eggs and juveniles are vulnerable to a wide variety of predators, and it is estimated that less than 1 in 100 eggs laid will reach adulthood. As a result, it can take decades for an adult to be replaced in the population. Many of the anthropogenic threats to turtles listed above remove adults from populations at unsustainable rates that the low survival rates of eggs and juveniles cannot keep up with, which can lead to severe population declines. However, not all hope is lost for turtles in Canada. There are many ways that we can all contribute to turtle conservation and help prevent declines of our local turtle populations.
Keep an eye out for turtles on the road.
This is especially important during nesting season (late-May to early-July) when females travel on land to lay their eggs. When safe to do so, always move turtles off the road in the direction that they were going. If you find an injured turtle, contact a local wildlife rehabilitator, vet, or conservation organization that can help to get it medical attention ASAP. In Ontario, contact the Ontario Turtle Conservation Centre.
Volunteer with a local conservation project.
There are numerous projects, especially in Ontario, that work to improve the survival of turtle nests by deploying nest protectors, collecting and incubating eggs laid in precarious locations, headstarting hatchlings, and increasing public education and awareness. There are a variety of ways to contribute to these efforts and during nesting season, projects often need all the help they can get! Check out the Ontario Turtle Conservation Network for a map of turtle projects to find one in your area.
Prioritize habitat protection
To enhance turtle habitats on your own property, consider planting native and removing invasive species of vegetation, maintaining fallen logs and debris for basking sites, creating artificial nesting mounds, and building nest protectors. Habitat protection can also scale up to your community as well. Make your voice heard within your local governments and vote with the environment in mind!
Report your sightings
Recording and submitting your turtle observations to community science projects is a simple yet valuable way to contribute to conservation efforts. When reporting to iNaturalist in particular, your findings are shared to scientific data repositories like NatureServe Canada, a registered charity that runs a network of provincial and territorial Conservation Data Centres (CDC’s) across the country. CDC’s allow species occurrence data to be accessed by governments, private industry, researchers, and conservation organizations, which can then be used for conservation-related purposes such as identifying hot spots of road mortality, determining the extent of a species’ geographic range, or even discovering previously unknown populations to be protected.
Before submitting to iNaturalist, check out these tips from the Canadian Wildlife Federation on how to make the most of your observations.
