COLUMBIA DAILY TRIBUNE (Missouri) 07 December 07 Turtle transfer beats letting critter become road pizza (Bill Clark)
Back in late spring, Ol’ Clark wrote a column about helping Columbia’s box turtles cross roadways before they became road pizza.
I mentioned taking one turtle, a female three-toed terrapin, terrapene carolina triunguis, from a four-lane divided highway with a concrete barrier in the median to a safe haven a few blocks away.
My action drew immediate censure on "Trib Talk." I had violated the turtle’s life cycle and doomed it to die in a foreign land, the caller said.
This, of course, meant the tortoise had zero chance for a future - on the highway or in a new home range. I needed to know more about the latter.
I called Jeff Briggler, the state herpetologist for the Missouri Department of Conservation, to find out the truth about highways, turtles and how to avoid reptilian catastrophe.
Come next spring, when the urge to mate and establish new territory sends an army of turtles across America’s highways and byways, you face a dilemma if you care about our reptilian peers.
A few reptilian facts:
Our three-toed box turtle lives a lifetime in a range of about 5 hectares, Briggler said. That’s a little more than 12 acres. Some live their lives on as little as 5 acres. Home range for a Missouri box turtle is about 250 yards in diameter.
These lives often reach 50 years and have been known to last 100. One box turtle lived 138 years. He crossed no highways.
Mrs. Turtle lays two to seven eggs from May to July in a flask-shaped hole, well-hidden in loose soil at a depth of 3 inches or so. Incubation takes anywhere between 70 and 115 days.
Despite their heavy armor plating, turtles have natural enemies such as raccoons, but man is the turtle’s most dangerous nemesis.
Turtles hibernate, returning to full activity when the weather allows, and by April they are on the prowl for a new mate.
That’s where the trouble begins.
Briggler was quick to say that man is a major problem in the turtle’s future. First, for centuries man has captured turtles to eat, stolen their eggs for the same reason, turned them into pets - if a reptile can ever become a pet - and used their shells for utensils and jewelry.
Briggler pointed out that it is OK for a child to keep a turtle, but for no more than a week and to return it to the same exact spot where it was captured. The tortoise will not be harmed by a short detour of less than a week in its long life.
Second, when a turtle is rescued on a highway, it should be placed on the side of the road it was trying to reach, pointed away from the roadway. The problem comes when the highway is divided by a barrier.
Ol’ Clark took one turtle beyond its 5-hectare kingdom. Was that a death sentence?
"If you moved the turtle early in the spring, it has a fair chance to survive in its new home territory," Briggler said.
"Imagine if you were taken to a spot deep in the wilderness where you have never been, or deposited in Manhattan with no money and unable to speak English." Jeff continued. "How would you survive?"
That’s where my turtle was last April. I rescued him off Broadway near Hinkson Creek and deposited him on Timberhill Road east of Highway 63. There’s no way he’ll ever return to his old home.
Now, left on East Broadway with a concrete median barrier, the turtle was 100 percent sure of not surviving. It could not reach the green fields of Stephens Lake Park - ever.
In the excellent turtle habitat at the base of Timberhill Road, my turtle friend had better than a 50-50 chance of surviving.
The habitat was turtle-sustaining, it was late April, thus the turtle had an excellent chance of finding a mate and a new life - much like you would do if you were alone in the wilderness in April rather than October, when your chances of survival would be much less.
To feel good about one’s self, is it better to give the turtle at least a 50-50 chance of survival as opposed to zero?
But wait! Maybe I should have picked up the turtle, found a place to turn around and dropped the guy on Stephens Lake land, where he was headed.
I have a strong feeling that my turtle is better off on Timberhill. What if he found nothing in Stephens Park and turned himself around? Road pizza, that’s what.
Come next spring, the dilemma will once again need to be addressed. There are come immediate "don’ts."
Don’t capture turtles to use as pets; don’t ever keep a turtle in captivity for longer than one week; don’t move a turtle from its direction of travel if at all possible.
Do help it across the road and ignore other motorists who scream at you for being a nice guy or gal.
When faced with the dilemma of moving the turtle to a new location, weigh the issues - the time of the year, the likelihood of survival if left in the old neighborhood with its high-speed traffic and maze of barriers and the chances of survival in new but suitable turtle country.
As Jeff Briggler concluded: "There’s no quick answer."
Box turtles have been around for more than 200 million years and have changed very little through time. Now comes man with his roads through turtle country and his high-speed traffic, and in the past 100 years the box turtle is much more endangered than in its first 200 million years.
Man is the problem, so man should be a major part of the solution.
We’re trying.
Turtle transfer beats letting critter become road pizza