FOSTER'S DAILY DEMOCRAT‎ (Dover, New Hampshire) 05 December 13 Snap to it! Waban discovers baby turtles as they trek to Bauneg Beg Lake

Sanford: At Waban’s TREE Center last month, Environmental Educator Cynthia Peedin spotted what looked like a leaf moving slowly across the center’s grounds at Bauneg Beg Lake. Intrigued, she investigated and, to her surprise, found a small baby snapping turtle walking in the direction of the lake. Within two days, the staff at the TREE Center discovered seven baby turtles making their way to their new lake home.

“It was too much of a coincidence,” said Ann Rossignol, the director of the TREE Center. “We knew there was a nest close by, but I was surprised by the distance between the nest site and the lake.”

What a lot of people don’t know is how far turtles can go to lay their eggs.

“Snapping turtles, like most turtles, have ancestral nesting grounds,” said Emily Calhoun, the Wildlife Education and Outreach Fellow at the Center for Wildlife. “Around June, they will start to make the trek from their home range to their nesting grounds — the same grounds that were used by their ancestors for years. Generally, snapping turtles will travel around two miles to their nesting site, though that does vary from turtle to turtle. I once heard of a snapper that was tracked on a 10-mile round-trip to her nesting site, which is an incredible feat for a turtle.”

The newborn turtles will usually emerge from their eggs around late August to early October, two or three months after they have been laid, depending upon weather conditions (Hammer, 1969).

“Turtle nests are fascinating because they are entirely dependent upon the environment that surrounds them. For instance, the sex of the young hatchlings will be determined by the nest’s incubation temperature. Eggs maintained at a mild temperature, like 70 degree Fahrenheit to 80 degrees, will produce males, while any eggs maintained outside of this temperature range will result in the eggs being females,” Peedin said. The Common Snapping Turtle prefers to nest on the soft muddy banks and bottoms of freshwater lakes and ponds. They spend almost all of their time in the water, except for nesting. Nests can be found in well-drained, open areas of soft, often sandy sediment away from water (DeGraaf &Yamasaki, 2001).

“Our snappers are usually the first babies to leave the nest — most of our other baby turtles will actually stay in their nests and hibernate through the winter,” Calhoun said.

Which brings about this question: What do you do if you find a nest or a baby turtle?

“Usually, the mother picks a well-protected area to lay her eggs, so don’t disturb the nest if you can help it. If you find a small hatchling crossing a dangerous area like a road, carefully and gently pick them up and put them in a safe location, facing them in the direction they were heading when you found them. Unless they are in a potentially dangerous area, don’t bother them. They instinctively know to find the closest body of water and one day they may have to make this journey again to lay their own eggs,” Peedin said.

If you are unsure of what to do when finding a nest or hatchlings, please call the Center for Wildlife Assistance Hotline at (207) 361-1400.
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