“Beware – Turtle Crossing”

by Scott Lee

 

Tis the season of turtles on the road, so BEWARE!  It’s not that they’re lost or just out for a walk or happen to like roads.  They have a much more important reason for their wanderings --- reproduction.

 

Turtles, like most every wild creature around here, go through their reproduction activities in the spring and early summer.  That’s important, especially here in the upper Midwest, as the earlier the babies are born, the bigger and healthier they will be by the time our cruel winter season comes along.

 

The turtles you are seeing crossing the roads are looking for the perfect spot to lay their eggs.  (If you decide to give them a helping hand, make sure you move them across in the direction they’re heading or they’ll likely turn around and head right back across).   They often travel considerable distances in search of that spot and the roads often are in their way.  When they find that ideal spot, they use their powerful back legs to dig a hole, and then proceed to lay 25 to 50 eggs (some may lay up to 100).  They then cover the hole and head back home, leaving those babies to take care of themselves when they hatch some 7 to 13 weeks later, depending on the species and incubation temperatures.  Sadly, most of the nests are predated by critters like raccoons or skunks, but the shear numbers of eggs laid enable enough of them to hatch and carry on the species.

 

An incredible fact about the sex of the young is unique to turtles. In common refuge turtles such as the Painted, Blandings, and the three types of Map Turtles, there is a key time during the middle trimester of the incubation that will determine whether the egg will produce a male or female.  If the temperatures during that time are higher, only females will be produced.  If that same time period has lower temperatures, only males are produced.  Snapping turtles are similar except at even cooler temperatures, they will produce more females again. 

 

That Mother Nature is pretty extraordinary!  She never ceases to amaze!