Snapper Season

In late June, Jacquie watched Momma Snapping Turtle lay eggs along the driveway to Jacquie's home on South Portage Road.

Now, it's time...   The eggs have hatched, and in one of Nature's miracles, the little guys are bustling off to the water's edge.

Jacquie and Marci gave some of them a helping hand (and a ride in a shallow pan) to be sure that they made it safely across the roadbed and actually got into the water.

The gender of the baby turtles depends on the temperature in the nest. The easy way to remember is that Chicks are HOT and Dudes are COOL...    Each snapper lays some 40 eggs in the nest in the spring.  Predation by raccoons and foxes reduces those numbers considerably, so baby snappers need all the help they can get.

Snapping Turtles are identified as a species of Special Concern by COSEWIC (the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada)The greatest threat to the adults is the automobile -- so slow down and take extra care, please.  You don't just crush One Turtle... you crush generations, and since snapping turtles can be 15 to 20 years old before they reach sexual maturity and begin to breed, losing even one turtle can cause an impact that ripples forward for generations.  The probability of a turtle embryo surviving to sexual maturity is figured at less than 0.1%

Thanks for sharing the picture of the "kids" setting off, Jacquie!  And thanks for being a Turtle Shepherd.  Good job.  We wish all these little guys -- and gals -- well.