Watch your step in High Park
Midland painted turtles are hatching just as cherry blossoms bloom
While crowds flock to High Park to catch a glimpse of cherry blossoms in full bloom, one group wants you to keep an eye on the ground, too.
Baby turtles the size of a loonie are journeying from nest to water this time of year and the High Park hill covered with cherry blossoms is a “hot spot” for midland painted turtles, according to Carolynne Crawley, co-founder of the Turtle Protectors.
After hatching from mid-August to mid-October last year, those turtles are finally emerging from their nests. It happens to coincide with heavy foot traffic at High Park, where city officials have temporarily blocked access to cars to help manage “the volume of visitors.”
The cherry blossoms have opened up early this year thanks to a warm Toronto winter. The trees are in full bloom across the city, first opening up downtown and drawing crowds outside the University of Toronto’s library. Full bloom is expected to last only four to 10 days.
As people flock to High Park to see the trees there, volunteers from Turtle Protectors, a Toronto-based and Indigenous-guided organization, are raising awareness to keep the turtles safe.
“They’re trying to navigate the thousands of people that are coming to the park,” said Crawley, who has Mi’kmaw, Black and Irish ancestry. “With the cherry blossoms, they’re so beautiful, everyone’s putting their heads up. Nobody’s looking down.”
The Turtle Protectors, with about 125 active volunteers, have been at High Park since Saturday. Volunteers operate a table by the cherry blossom trees and scour the area for hatchlings. They also tell visitors to keep an eye out for them — after all, at the size of a coin, they’re easy to miss.
“They’re teeny tiny,” Sue Carstairs, executive and medical director at the Ontario Turtle Conservation Centre, told the Star. “They’re just perfect little replicas of the adult.”
When Crawley finds a hatchling, she puts it in a container and invites people to come and look, so they understand what to watch out for. She then carries the hatchling to water, releasing it away from potential predators and amidst tall reeds to give it cover from threats.
Ensuring a hatchling isn’t stepped on while it journeys from nest to water is important, Crawley said. Midland painted turtles lay only seven to 10 eggs on average, she said, a small amount compared to the 40 to 50 a snapping turtle will lay.
The risks facing the turtles are plentiful: They can get hit by cars or cyclists, attacked by off-leash dogs, disturbed by humans or stepped on by passersby, Crawley said.
Midland painted turtles are considered at risk federally, as are seven other species of turtles in Ontario, according to Carstairs.
If you find a hatchling, stop moving, “because there’s never just one,” Crawley said. She asks people to call the Turtle Protectors hotline at 647-491-4057 while following the hatchling.
If you’re in a group, one person should stay at the spot you found the hatchling, Crawley said. That way, it’s easier for Turtle Protector volunteers to find the location of the turtle nest — an important step, because midland painted turtles nest in the same spot year after year and knowing the location can help keep them safe next year.
Crawley advised people to not pick up the hatchlings themselves.