The Huron Expositor, 1996-05-22, Page 5•
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Close-up
PHOTO BY GREGOR CAMPBELI.
DOOMED? There are more wood turtles in this neck of the woods than anywhere else in this province or country, a rare
species recently upgraded to "vulnerable" across Canada by the experts who keep track of such things. It is an intelligent
and ancient reptile, perhaps too friendly for its own. good. Despite a bulky close-up Tens and noisy motor drive on a cam-
era an inch from its nose, this wild "woodie" didn't flinch when tracked down on a recent excursion - "somewhere in
Huron County".
Canada's largest known population at 400
Huron's wood turtles in
BY GREGOR CAMPBELL
Expositor Staff
It's a tough lite and getting
rougher for a rare type of fur -
tie that is far more common
here in Huron County than
anywhere else in Canada.
The wood turtle is official-
ly , "vulnerable," as of last
month, so designated by the
committee of scientific
experts and conservationists
who meet every year to
upgrade this nation's list of
extinct and endangered
species.
Like all turtles "woodies"
may he slow. hut they are
also definitely different. They
have distinctive orange legs
that can climb stairs, both
ways. You can easily train
them to come when called or
even use the kitty litter, says
Mike Malhiot, a biologist
with the Ministry of Natural
Resources at Wingham.
Naturally being uncom-
monly bright and friendly, for
a reptile, isn't helping wood
turtles to survive these days,
in the overall scheme of
things.
The truth is exactly the
opposite.
These interesting ancient
inhabitants of Huron seem
destined to he downsized off
the face of this earth, for rea-
sons beyond their control.
The wood turtle is found in
only four locations in Ontario
and Huron County hag
Canada's largest known pop-
ulation, an estimated 400 of
them. Algonquin is the other
main arca for the species in
Ontario, with an estimated
population of 71 adults.
NOT TELLING
Exactly where these rare
turtles arc in Huron shall
rcmain a mystery, at the
understandable request of
Malhiot, who took this'
reporter traipsing through the
Huron woods on the sunny
typical spring day last
Monday afternoon to sec if
we could spot some.
We found live.
The Wingham biologist
doesn't get much timc to go
around looking for turtles but
he tries to do so at least once
at about this time every year.
This is when they bask in
spring sunlight and females
lay their eggs, before vegeta-
tion quickly covers the hanks
in an abundance of green
growth, which makes turtles
that much more difficult to
see.
They just lock like rocks in
thc water.
In other years on hikes of
about the same length at the
same timc of year, Malhiot
and others have come across
about 25 wood turtles in thc
same spots. What was more
worrisome to him last week,
was that all five - two males
and three females, ranging in
age from about eight to 20 -
years -old, a couple of them a
good eight inches long - had
all been marked by the min-
istry before with tiny notches
riled in their shells.
There were no new ones to
be found.
WIRED "WOODIES"
A student at the University
of Guelph worked with the
Wingham ministry office and
did her master's thesis on our
rare wood turtles a couple of
years ago. She- carefully
drilled small holes in the
carapaces of some, where
radio transmitters were then
attached, to track individual
movements and behavior pat-
terns and find out just how
far these "woodies wander.
Wood turtles, as their name
implies, are unusual in how
far they get away from water,
the favoured home of other
more -common turtles, for
instance, snappers and paint-
ed turtles.
"Woodics," like humans,
take a long time to grow up.
They reach maturity in about
20 years and can live to he
about 50. Up to maturity, you
can tell how old wood turtles
are by counting the colourful
rings on their shells, which
works sort of like counting
growth Tines on a sawed-off
tree trunk.
Covered by their hard
shells, adult turtles are a
tough nut to crack (although
a person or cow can kill one
by standing on it) and have
few natural enemies. One of
the ones we saw last week
had a tail partly chewed off,
probably by a raccoon,
Malhiot said.
WE ARE BIG ENEMY
The hard part if you're a
wood turtle is getting old in
the first place.
If thc young ones make to
the winter they arc relatively
safe until next spring
because. even though they
breathe air, turtles arc cold-
blooded and have special
membranes, so slow right
down in thc winter, kind of
hibernating.' barely -alive
under water
But turtle eggs arc a feast
for many predators and infant
mortality is very high
because 'coons, skunks,
herons, crows, large fish such
as pike, and even snapping
turtles cat little turtles.
One study found up to 90
per cent of wood turtle nests
arc preyed on by raccoons
and skunks, many within a
day of nesting.
Each clutch is made up of
from eight to 12 eggs, and
thc female genetically length-
ens thc odds for survival of
the species "automatically"
by having thc potential to lay
about 90 eggs in a lifetime.
Maybe one or two clutches
will survive to hatch - and of
these young, very few, maybe
one or two turtles, reach
maturity.
Even so, wood turtles have
faced such long evolutionary
odds since way back when,
and still managed to survive
as a species.
But experts now say the
prognosis for the "woody" is
extinction.
Humankind is the reason.
Although officially protect-
ed here and in most places
across North America where
danger
it is still found, the species
has declined dramatically
because we destroy its natur-
al home, or habitat.
Our urbanization and agri-
cultural clearing have
destroyed much open wood-
land where wood turtles
might thrive.
Forest cover in Huron aver-
ages 17 per cent of the land
base, a far cry from when the
county was first settled, rela-
tively recently in evolution -
CONTINUED on page 12
THE HURON EXPOSITOR, Na
22, 11194-5
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