Rare turtle babies get a head start thanks to John Ball Zoo and Calvin University

A spotted turtle with a transmitter that emits a signal so zoo staff can locate the animal in the wild. (Photo: John Ball Zoo. Used with Permission)

Ruth Thornton is a WKTV Contributor. She holds master’s degrees in journalism and fisheries and wildlife, both from Michigan State University. Before working as a journalist, she worked in conservation for many years in Michigan, Minnesota and West Virginia. Her work has appeared in many media outlets, including MLive, the Detroit Free Press, Bridge Michigan, Capital News Service and Great Lakes Echo. You can follow her work via her Substack newsletter, Nature Signals, and at ruththornton.com.

Ruth Thornton
Wyoming-Kentwood News Today Contributor
greer@wktv.org

One of Michigan’s rarest turtles is getting a boost in early survival thanks to a program called ‘headstarting,’ where biologists collect eggs, hatch them in captivity and raise the babies through the winter. The young turtles are then released back into the wild in the spring.

The initiative is part of a collaboration between John Ball Zoo’s Great Lakes Rare Turtles Program and Calvin University to research and protect spotted turtles, a state threatened species.

Baby turtles are easy food for predators

Spotted turtle eggs and hatchlings are particularly vulnerable to predators like raccoons, which have increased in recent years, said Will Miller, associate professor of biology at Calvin University.

“The idea is that we can grow a larger baby turtle that’s more robust to some of these challenges that they will meet in their native environment,” Miller said. “Many nests and juvenile turtles never make it to adulthood, which can then compound other issues like habitat destruction, as well as poaching for the pet trade.”

While headstarting has been successfully done with other turtles in Michigan, this is one of the first attempts to try the method on spotted turtles.

Testing if headstarting might help spotted turtles

To evaluate if the practice results in more turtles surviving to adulthood, researchers gathered 15 spotted turtle eggs from females they had gotten from the wild and divided them into two cohorts, said Bill Flanagan, conservation director at John Ball Zoo.

Bill Flanagan (left) and Rhiannon Mulligan, with John Ball Zoo, survey for rare turtles in Michigan. Pictured here is a rare Blanding’s turtle. (Photo: John Ball Zoo. Used with Permission)

One group was released into the wild immediately after hatching. Hatchlings in the other group were raised by students at Calvin University, with help from faculty and zoo staff, and released this spring. Both groups are tracked by zoo staff using telemetry.

It was a rare opportunity for students to gain hands-on experience taking care of rare turtles. The animals need daily care, so students had to come in on weekends and during holiday breaks for many months.

“We saw this as a major win-win, both from an educational and a conservation research standpoint,” Miller said. “The students absolutely loved being part of this project.”

Flanagan said the project will continue for at least another season.

“We’re really keyed in on trying to learn more about the nesting ecology for spotted turtles,” he said. “This is a species that we don’t know a ton about how they nest, especially here in Michigan.”

Faith Kuzma with John Ball Zoo holds a young spotted turtle. (Photo: John Ball Zoo. Used with Permission)

Reclusive habits make them difficult to study

They’re one of the smallest turtles in the state – adults are just over 5 inches long, about the size of an index card. They also spend time in shallow wetlands away from humans, said Dan Earl, a zoology research assistant with the Michigan Natural Features Inventory.

“They’re pretty reclusive as far as our turtle species go,” he continued. “They tend to not be as mobile as some of our other turtles, and they also have a very short active season.”

Spotted turtles tend to start moving in the spring. “But when you get past June, they kind of hunker down for the year,” Earl added. “They’re just hard to find.”

Because spotted turtles don’t reproduce until they’re 10 to 15 years old and their young have a high mortality rate, it’s especially important that adults survive as long as possible.

But more adult turtles are dying because of humans, including through habitat loss, getting hit by cars and the illegal pet trade.

One worry when nesting success declines is what Earl calls “ghost populations.” That’s when adults might persist at a site, but if no young turtles survive, the population will slowly die out.

And since spotted turtles can live for more than 30 years, biologists may not realize what’s happening until it’s too late.

Reclusive spotted turtles live in shallow wetlands in Michigan. (Photo: Meghan Marchetti/Virginia Department of Wildlife. Photo in the public domain.)

What can you do to help?

To help turtles, Flanagan encourages people to leave wild turtles where they are.

“One of the things we always say is, ‘If you care, leave it there.’ So, if you find a turtle in the wild, make sure that you leave it where it’s at,” he said.

But, if a turtle is on a road, it’s best to move it in the direction it’s going and not far from where it was found – as long as it’s safe to do so.

Miller encourages people to contribute to conservation efforts not only by donating money to conservation organizations, but to also get involved with citizen monitoring programs and learn about wetlands.

“[Wetlands are a] critical and often endangered ecosystem type that our turtles rely upon, we rely upon for a variety of different ecosystem services,” Miller said. “Because what’s good for the turtle is good for us all.”