There was a worldwide celebration of turtle love Thursday with World Turtle Day, and Lake County Forest Preserves celebrated with the release of about 100 Blanding’s turtles, marking the 10th year of a program to grow the population of the endangered reptile.
Kirsten Andersson, 24, a student at the University of Illinois College of Veterinarian Medicine who also works for the school’s Wildlife Epidemiology Lab, is into her third year of gathering health data on the turtles, and she has bonded with them.
“I just missed them,” she said, explaining how much fun it was to get back out in the field and start tracking them. “Absolutely I miss them after going a whole year.”
She added that Blanding’s turtles “have a lot of personality, and it’s always fun,” explaining how they look like they are smiling because of the bright yellow chin and neck set against their dark green upper jaw. “To see the population growing is really exciting.”
Gary Glowacki, wildlife biologist for the forest preserves, said officials estimate that they have raised just over 500 turtles since starting the program, which works out to about one turtle per acre. They are striving for two per acre.
“Our data is better now, so we have the ability to estimate the population,” he said.
While the turtles in this program prefer a shallow sedge meadow emerging-marsh habitat along the Wisconsin and Illinois border — known as the Chiwaukee Illinois Beach Lake Plain — some in Michigan prefer deeper waters.
“There seem to be regional habitat preferences,” he said.
The local Blanding’s population is the largest in the state of Illinois, one of the most stable in the country, and forest preserves staffers are learning what it takes to grow a healthy resilient population. Predators like raccoons can be a problem, but because they are so rare, poachers can be even more of threat.
“Believe it or not, (people) do poach them. They’re not easy to catch,” Glowacki said, noting they use traps baited with sardines, which draws crayfish, the turtles’ favorite food, although they eat just about anything.
The turtles were probably common throughout Lake County, since they have documented 17 localities since 1907. Only one, the Lake Plain, is known to have both the number of animals and habitat needed to support a viable free-ranging population.
Blanding’s turtles were listed as threatened in Illinois in 1999, and as endangered by the Illinois Endangered Species Protection Board in 2009.
With populations diminishing, the Blanding’s Turtle Recovery Program began in 2010. Program personnel have released more than 1,000 turtles that have been head-started. That means means they have been grown in a controlled habitat in McHenry County for anywhere from eight months to 20 months, with males growing faster than the females, before being released with a notch in their shell for identification.
A database checks their overall health through blood draws and swabbing for viruses. Some turtles are tagged with a small AAA battery-sized transmitter that helps track a turtle’s movements.
Released turtles have a survival rate of 65%. But once they make it through the first year, the survival rate climbs to 80-88%, Glowacki said, and if that can get above 90%, the population can be self-sustaining.
The turtles can live up to 80 years, and females will travel up to 2 miles to find a proper place to build a nest. They don’t become sexually mature until they are 14 to 20 years old, so the first released turtles are now closing in on sexual maturity. Glowacki said he sees them as a “canary in a coal mine” species.
“They represent biodiversity. It’s a real important species for determining the health of the ecosystem. If they are here, that means there is better habitat for a whole slew of other wildlife,” he said. “If we lose them, it’s bad for all wildlife.”
Funding for the program comes from various sources, including the Preservation Foundation of the Lake County Forest Preserve’s Adopt-a-Turtle program, where people can become a turtle champion for $120, which gives them naming rights. They also get an email and a picture of their turtle when it is released.
Other entities that have assisted in the recovery program include the Illinois Natural History Survey, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, The Nature Conservancy, and Illinois Nature Preserve Commission.
“People love turtles,” Rebekah Snyder, executive director of the foundation, said Thursday while observing the day’s activities. “We don’t have to market this program at all.
“It’s exciting what we do at the foundation. This gets funded by outside sources,” she added, which would save taxpayer funds for other work.
Glowacki said the program could eventually be used to save shrinking populations of the turtle, or start new ones in appropriate habitat. And there is another reason for the program.
“Success is a long-term proposition. Hopefully, some gains can be made here so they are here for my kid’s kids,” he said.
Twitter @abderholden
