At Risk Species

Thursday, 28 August 2014 05:50

Species At Risk Team, Scott Gillingwater, Kaela Paddick and Krista Nicolson

UTRCA Species At Risk Reptile Team working to save the Spiny Softshell Turtle

OXFORD COUNTY -- Efforts continue locally to protect turtles and more specifically, the Spiny Softshell Turtle.

Surveys conducted by the Upper Thames River Conservation Authority's Species at Risk Reptile Team in the 1990's showed that a small number of hatchling turtles were reaching adulthood. Species at Risk Biologist Scott Gillingwater says "obviously we had some concern that there was no young reaching adulthood so as we started to investigate further we realized that there's a major issue with some of the nest sites where the turtles tried to lay their eggs."

The population of the turtles was declining and early studies revealed almost zero turtle egg survival due to such things as habitat loss, illegal collection, invasive species, high predation rates and human recreational activities such as ATV use.

However recent research shows that protection efforts are having an impact locally.

The team has protected 175 softshell turtle nests this summer and more than 2,000 baby turtles are expected to hatch from these nests. They have also hatched artificially incubated eggs which are being released into the Thames River in protected areas.

"Probably one of our crowning glories has been now seeing young females, very small young adult females starting to nest in the population after that 12 to 15 years they need to reach maturity. So, seeing the fruits of our efforts has been very rewarding."

All age classes are now being found throughout the Thames River but Gillingwater says any effort to protect these turtles is greatly beneficially to their long term survival as turtles generally have very low recruitment rate. "What that means is that it takes a large number of eggs before some of those hatchlings survive to adulthood. Snapping Turtles could take 18 to 20 years before they lay their first clutch of eggs and it may take 80 years potentially for one of those eggs or two of those eggs to reach maturity to replace the female and male in the population."

Even though some funding is provided, the Spiny Softshell Recovery Project does rely on volunteers and private donations from community members. Those interested in making a contribution to the project can visit their website here.