The western painted turtle is B.C.’s only remaining native pond turtle, and the Pacific Coast population is dwindling. In the wetlands of B.C.’s Fraser Valley, western painted turtles face many challenges, especially as eggs and tiny hatchlings. With no shortage of hungry predators and no care from their parents once they’ve hatched, only a few young turtles survive to become adults. When you add human activity to the mix, the rate of survival can be so low that a population becomes unsustainable. Since 2012, we’ve been working to improve those odds. In addition to protecting nests, we collect eggs from vulnerable turtle nests, artificially incubate them and head-start new hatchlings before releasing them back into the wild.

Photo above: Michelle Polley

 

As our butterfly and frog recovery programs in BC are winding  down for the year, our turtle season keeps moving on. There were  many great successes this year that give us immense satisfaction  and will help to direct our efforts in the years ahead. We saw  many of our headstart released turtles lay their first nests  this year, including over 20 at one site in Aldergrove! This is  amazing and exactly what we want to see from our release efforts.

Unfortunately we did have a mole at our nesting beach at  Aldergrove that began targeting the nests. Because of our  dedicated monitoring staff we were able to identify the problem,  save some nests and remove any new nests that were laid and  incubate them in our facility. This resulted in more than 100  hatchlings. The nests had a very high fertility and hatching  success rate. Go team Aldergrove-turtles!  

Since this population is now doing so well with released turtles  having reached breeding age and is therefore no longer in need  of additional headstarting we released the hatchlings back to  where we had collected them without giving them the extra time  overwintering. The mole can not predate the hatchlings once  they have moved into the water, so the immediate risk was over  and they could return. We adopted this method with some of  our other release sites, taking in the eggs, hatching them out  to assess viability and then releasing the hatchlings in the same  summer.

This helps us gather information on the success of nests laid by  our released animals, without having to dedicate the limited  headstarting space to rearing them year round.

By optimising our efforts through hatch and release without  an extended headstarting period, we are able to assist other  populations that would benefit from reintroductions of head  started animals. This includes Sunshine Coast and Texada Island  which are more remote and the release of larger turtles will more  rapidly benefit these depleted populations by shortening the time  until the released turtles begin breeding in the wild.

We are also able to take in nests from landowners who have  turtles nesting on their property, which supports existing  significant populations. We can take in eggs from females hit by

vehicles, as we did this year from a female who did not survive  and whose hatchlings we are now rearing.

This season we’ve been able to provide rehabilitation to five  adult turtles found injured in the wild, as well as one very special  turtle to the program, 2-2 or as we call her Tutu. Tutu was found  during monitoring, she is from Burnaby (site two) and is the  second turtle we caught there, hence her number 2-2. Tutu had  been tracked by the program for over 15 years.  

When she was captured this year for a routine check it was  noted that she had a new eye injury and seemed impaired in her  other eye. She was taken to the vet for assessment and found to  be completely blind in one eye and partial sighted in the other,  likely as a result of a fish hook injury. The vet recommendations  were either euthanasia or retirement in captivity.

The population of turtles at Burnaby, while affected by some  hybridization with Midland painted turtles, is known to have  unique genetics among its genetically unhybridized Westerns.

Tutu is one of this genetically unique groups so we decided to  give her a chance to live out her days in captivity. 

Tutu will go into her first hibernation in our turtle winter chalet  (fridge) this year and will be paired with a male in the spring.  This is a conservation program after all, and while we might  have to hand feed her, she has shown us with her past nesting  successes in the wild that, in the safety of our care, she can  continue to help save her species from extinction.

Tutu, our new long-term resident, was injured and could no longer live in the wild. However, she is from a genetically unique population, providing tremendous value to our program. Photo: Andrea Gielens

Andrea Gielens

Lead Biologist – Fraser Valley Wetlands Wildlife

Andrea manages WPC’s captive breeding and release programs for the Oregon spotted frog and the coastal western painted turtle. Andrea has studied at-risk reptiles and amphibians in Canada and abroad, including a term at the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust in Jersey. Andrea also manages the Taylor’s checkerspot butterfly recovery program in BC.



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