Author: turtlesback

A day in the life of a New England turtle rehabilitator looks a lot like this…in June, when nesting season is in full swing and turtles are being hit left and right on their way to the nesting habitats. But these three turtles all arrived this weekend, within hours of each other. One was full of eggs, and two are male. 2023 has been anything but a normal year for any of us, and turtles are clearly feeling the climate crisis, too. Hatchlings that overwintered in their nests, usually emerging in early spring, were being found well into May. The…

This young male was picked up yesterday evening by a driver who noticed him injured on the road. She did exactly the right things:  called us, immediately drove him here (halfway across the state), and even made a donation towards his care. Her only mistake was the same one nearly every finder makes when they call about an injured turtle—they misidentify it. The first question we ask when people call with a turtle issue is “what species is it?” Like most people who come upon a small, smooth, blackish turtle, the finder assumed that it was “a common pond turtle,…

In turtle rehabilitation, snappers come and snappers go. They are frequent fliers when it comes to road mortality, and it’s the lucky ones that end up here, because the odds of their recovery are good if they get help. They are survivors. It’s easy to become fond of these ancient animals. Working with them day in and day out you get to know their mellowness. They are old souls; you can see it in their eyes when they look at you. And they do look at you—with pleading, sorrow, defiance and the simple acknowledgement that passes between beings. But to…

Nesting season began yesterday. Triggered by a good rain followed by high temperatures, female turtles full of eggs started their annual mass exodus from wetland to nesting sites…and crossing roads in the process. The two that arrived yesterday illustrate the danger of making assumptions when you find a turtle in the road. Neither one had any visible injury, viewed from the top. Both finders thought their turtles seemed fine. No shell fractures, no massive pools of blood around the animals. The painted turtle had its head pulled in, with a little blood visible on its nose. The box turtle was…

The question of the week has definitely been “What do I do with the baby turtle I found?” The common answer is “Take it to the nearest water.” Unfortunately, that response is a woefully inadequate simplification—one that omits a lot of really important details that can make the difference between life and death. And with hatchling survival rates in the single digits, we can’t afford to get it wrong. Eastern painted turtles are the most common species of hatchling found high and dry at this time of year as they emerge after overwintering in their nests. Fall-hatched common snapping turtles…

This is a story about homelessness, a scourge that afflicts pets as well as people. When we bring animals into our homes they become our captives, for better or worse. Their lives are dictated by our whims and circumstances. Too many turtles know something of this. Often kidnapped from their native homes and continually rejected and resettled over the courses of their long lives, they are at our mercy. Their stories seldom end well. This, however, is a rare exception. Once upon a time a beautiful, male spotted turtle in his prime was tragically taken from the wild. When his…

As Aristotle said, “Nature does nothing uselessly.” Those fall leaves littering your lawn actually serve a very important purpose as winter habitat not only for pollinating insects, but also for amphibians and reptiles. By the time many of us get to our autumn yard clean-up, turtles are already winding down for the season before brumating (hibernating), and are sluggish and vulnerable. This astoundingly resilient Eastern box turtle was discovered under the leaves by a family that was out raking during last weekend’s warm temps, and she is a survivor if ever there was one. Not only is she in the…

Found an injured turtle? The first question to answer is: what kind? One of the most surprising aspects of turtle rehab is the constant realization that most people have no idea how to tell one kind of turtle from another. Yet this is a critical piece of information in being able to determine what happens next. Think of it this way. No one calls a rehabilitator and says “I found an injured rodent.” They say I found a squirrel, or a woodchuck, or a chipmunk or a mouse. Most people are able to identify these species, and that makes the…

I am often asked why I chose to rehabilitate turtles. The answer is simple: they need the help. Sure, I have always loved these animals, but most crucially, with five out of eight Connecticut species listed as endangered to some degree, this is where the ability to save a life makes a huge difference. Yes, one life. Earning a place on the list of Special Concern, Threatened, and Endangered Species isn’t just a matter of sheer decline in numbers; it has just as much to do with the viability of populations within a given species. There may still be a…

We weren’t the only ones lured out of quarantine by this past weekend’s beautiful weather. Last year’s baby painted turtles, who actually hatched late last summer but overwintered in their nests, seem to have decided to make a mass exodus on Saturday and Sunday, triggered by the warm temps and who knows what other signals they detected from deep in nature’s vaults. It is one of nature’s mysteries, this underground survival phenomenon that occurs in painted turtle hatchlings. Do they stay snugly entrenched in the dugout their mothers created for them in order to conserve resources or to avoid predation?…