BORN TO BE WILD
Toronto Zoo frees 36 baby Blanding’s turtles into Rouge Park to promote conservation of this nationally threatened species,
The Toronto Zoo, Parks Canada and the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority set 36 baby Blanding’s turtles free in Rouge National Urban Park on Tuesday. Blanding’s turtles are provincially and nationally threatened. They were introduced to their new home in Canada’s largest urban park to promote the species’ conservation. By Ebyan Abdigir Fast facts on the Blanding’s turtle
Thirty-six baby Blanding’s turtles, raised in a controlled environment at the Toronto Zoo, have found a new home in the wilds of Rouge National Urban Park, which lies on the Toronto-Pickering border.
The Toronto Zoo, Parks Canada and the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA) reintroduced the little turtles into the park Tuesday.
Baby Blanding’s turtles are on average 10 centimetres long with a smooth, black upper shell with small yellow flecks and a bright yellow chin and throat. Blanding’s turtles can live up to 80 years and have inhabited the Rouge Valley for thousands of years. Despite being a long-lived species, two years ago, they came close to being classified as endangered.
“Blanding’s turtles are a flagship species representing a group of animals facing a variety of threats,” said the Toronto Zoo’s curator of reptiles and amphibians, Dr. Andrew Lentini. Blanding’s turtles are threatened by increased human interaction, habitat loss and nest predation by raccoons and other wildlife.
As few as six Blanding’s turtles remained in the wild in the Rouge Valley region in 2014. They have been reintroduced into the park each spring for three years in a row now. While there are more than 300 turtle and tortoise species in the world, the Blanding’s turtle is among seven species listed in Ontario as threatened, endangered or a special concern.
“Seven of eight turtle species in Ontario are at risk and need our help,” Lentini said, urging Canadians to play a part in preserving them by visiting the Toronto Zoo’s Adopt-A-Pond website and by reporting sightings to the zoo’s Ontario Turtle Tally.
Twenty-one baby Blanding’s turtles were released in June 2015 and 10 the year before.
Like all turtles, they are largely aquatic and live in wetlands.
The zoo and TRCA have been collecting information on and monitoring Blanding’s turtles in the Rouge Valley in 2005. The zoo collected Blanding’s turtle eggs from a stable source population elsewhere in southern Ontario in 2014 and has been raising them in a protected environment for reintroduction to the wild ever since.