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NEIGHBOURHOOD NEWS (Orleans, Ontario) 11 July 05 Turtle rescue group turns five (Steve Coleman)
The fact turtles are causing traffic jams along major roads is an encouraging sign for Michelle André-St. Cyr, self-appointed protector of turtles.
The Rockland-area resident says drivers are now stopping to let the animals cross a road, rather than simply running them over.
Five years ago, when André-St. Cyr established Turtle S.H.E.L.L. (Safety, Habitat, Education, Long Life), most drivers saw turtles as nothing more than slow-moving speed bumps. In establishing the non-profit group, her goal was simple: convince Clarence-Rockland council to put up turtle crossing signs, thus warning drivers to slow down.
While it might not seem like a lot considering the size of Ontario, the number of bright yellow turtle crossing signs dotting major roads has grown, from about a dozen when they first went up in Clarence-Rockland, to about 250 province wide.
Slowly, but surely, however, drivers are getting the message that Ontario's eight turtle species are in danger. In fact, Kingston and northern Ontario volunteers have now opened their own centres to protect the animals -- another sure sign the message is spreading.
"There have been 265,000 hits on our web site," André-St. Cyr said. "We had 72,000 this May from 22 different countries. To me, it's a sign we've gone international."
More people are starting to take the plight of the slow-moving creatures seriously. As head of the only rescue centre in Eastern Ontario dedicated to nursing turtles back to health, André-St. Cyr gets plenty of calls from people trying to help a turtle before it becomes road kill.
And while they might not realize it, drivers who pass on the shoulder also contribute to the problem. Soil compaction by cars increases the weight on the buried eggs and cuts down the oxygen reaching them. A mother turtle that lays her eggs in the gravel beside the blacktop may end up with a brood of hatchlings born with deformities.
For the ones that do hatch without any problems, it doesn't take much to lose a battle with a car or truck.
The reptiles that reach the rescue centre after getting run over usually come in with broken shells. They remain as centre guests for the next nine months while they recover.
One of the first things a volunteer will do is put on a fibreglass patch that works like a cast while the shell heals. Once the injury has healed nine months later, the patch drops off.
While they might not win any beauty pageants, the fact turtles aren't as ugly to human eyes as some of the other animals out there has gone a long way toward helping their cause, said Mike Rankin, a retired herpetology technician involved with the group.
"It would be awfully hard to get people interested in slugs," said Rankin. "Saving a relatively small number does make a difference.
"Turtle populations are pyramidal. There are a large number of short-lived young ones that get killed on the road and a small number of large adults to produce them."
The group's leader also insists that her wards all have their own personalities. There's the snapping turtle that has almost become a pet for André-St. Cyr. It's the other, more docile, ones that you have to watch out for, she said.
A painted turtle that was almost ready to go back into the wilderness might just have the biggest attitude of any of the ones currently under the woman's care. She said it bit her top lip while she tried to untangle a gold chain around her neck and the animal's front legs.
Of the 72 turtles rescued by the centre in the last five years, only one animal that survived the initial trauma has been lost. Any of the other turtles that died shortly after their arrival to the centre were already too injured to survive.
In the U.S., there are 40,000 licenced wildlife rehabilitation centres looking after everything from butterflies to bison, said Rankin. As far as Eastern Ontario is concerned, Turtle S.H.E.L.L. is it, he said.
Putting them back into the wilderness is a whole new adventure. Because turtles are territorial, they can only be put back within a one to five kilometre radius of the spot they were originally found.
Kids who decide they want to take a turtle home with them as a pet create a whole new stack of problems, André-St. Cyr said. A turtle can't be just flushed down a toilet just because someone decides they don't want it anymore.
The same philosophy applies to putting a healed animal back into the wild. There's a reason turtle groups are called clans, she said. Groups that don't have the same scent as other turtles from the same area will be hunted down and killed by the native ones.
But the biggest reason six of the eight species native to Ontario are endangered isn't motorists. It's habitat destruction.
Education is another part of the work that Turtle S.H.E.L.L. does in its fight to protect the animals. In addition to working full time as a physiotherapist, André-St. Cyr and a handful of volunteers have also given talks to veterinary tech students at Alfred College and spoken with elementary school kids about the work they do.
"I think Turtle S.H.E.L.L. is working," said Rankin. "If someone swerves around a turtle, instead of running over it, we've done our job."
In his case, he also runs a small one-man project tagging and releasing turtles on the Rideau River between Smiths Falls and the Ottawa River. The idea behind the research project is to have at least a small amount of baseline data that other researchers can use if they take up the cause.
Five years after starting the campaign to make the road safer for slow-moving cross traffic, the organization has gained charitable status and received certification as a wildlife custodian by the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources. The group has also caught the eye of local herpetologists looking to use the group as a source for their own ongoing research projects.
"I can say I'm trying to make a difference," André-St. Cyr said. "I started something I didn't think there was a need (to do). I had no idea I'd be the only one doing this when I started out."
Turtle rescue group turns five

OTTAWA CITIZEN (Ontario) 09 July 05 Love & turtles: Fixing broken shells with fibreglass and care (Jenny Jackson)
Drivers will brake for a cat, dog, groundhog, even a crow. The unlovely lady turtle, however, brings out the worst in some people.
Those jerks aim straight for a female heavy with eggs, dragging herself across a treacherous highway, says wildlife advocate Michele Andre-St. Cyr.
"I wish we could catch just one and charge him with cruelty to animals. It would set an example for everyone."
Andre-St. Cyr lives with her husband Douglas high above the Ottawa River in Rockland. Her house is a friendly jumble of two dogs, a cat, and several pet turtles. But she is most in her element in her adjacent turtle clinic, with its turtle oxygen masks (actually, infant masks), an infrared laser pen for reducing pain and inflammation, tissue glue manufactured by 3M, sheets of fibreglass from the automotive shop, and good old duct tape -- something she only uses "if the bleeding is really bad."
Until last week, she had had a full house of 14, turtles so badly injured it took them about nine months to fully recuperate. Local veterinarians had pieced them back together well and they had mended so nicely, the fibreglass had fallen away.
Andre-St. Cyr and her eight volunteers are careful to bring each turtle back to the exact place it was found. Otherwise, it will be lost. She cried the first time she had to release her patients back into the world. "The second time I cried too."
Now she is a little more sanguine but not a lot. "They like to be petted."
About seven years ago, Andre-St. Cyr decided she had seen enough of the carnage that occurs around this time every year as female turtles, some as old as 70, drag themselves from the ponds and rivers to sandy areas about 100 metres away to lay their eggs.
The turtles always go back to the site they used the previous year, even if it means inching across a terrifying highway. Many do not make it. Cars flatten them, crunching over their shells. Or they catch a toe or edge of a shell, flinging them through the air. Sometimes, the simple air pressure from a passing car can blow a small turtle off the blacktop.
In 1999, she formed Turtle S.H.E.L.L. Tortue, "shell" standing for safety, habitat, education, and long life.
She started by designing a turtle crossing sign in yellow and black, and lobbying to have it installed across Ontario. In Peterborough, a group of children called Kids 4 Turtles shamed city councillors into installing the signs after one grinch said the $200 per sign installed would be too much.
Now about 250 signs have been raised throughout the province, and the group has had inquiries from France, Belgium and Colombia.
Saving the turtles reaches far beyond a sentimental fondness for nature.
The females may not be fertile until they are 18 or 20. But they are also the most likely to be hit, and each lost female represents dozens of lost offspring.
Herpetologist Mike Rankin, a member of Turtle SHELL says some species now have 12 males to one female. The ideal ration is 1.5 males to one female.
Ontario is the only province with all eight native Canadian species: the snapping turtle, painted turtle, wood turtle, spiny softshell, stinkpot or musk turtle, Blanding's turtle, Northern map turtle, and the spotted turtle. All but the first two are considered endangered, threatened or of special concern by both the provincial and federal governments.
Andre-St. Cyr concluded our interview with: "Send me $20. I1ll give you a receipt for a charitable donation." You can call her at (613) 446-9927 or e-mail motherturtle@turtleshelltortue.org. For donations of $15 or more, there is an educational booklet, and for $20 or more, a 15-cm-square turtle crossing sign.