How Roads Impact Wildlife – Turtles Finding Nesting Sites Across Our Roads

As warmer weather approaches for the summer season, it always seems to wake everyone and everything up in the world to a brighter and cheerier day. This is a time too where people want to be out and about in their cars with the windows rolled down, sunroof open, and music ready for cruisin’. Picture this as your driving around during this time of the season: As your driving down your street on your way to go on your errands, you notice on the side of the road a turtle who’s attempting to cross the street. You don’t think much of it, just another animal crossing a road, and pass by it. That’s when all of sudden you see in your rear-view mirror the car behind you run it over. This may be a morbid scene to think about, however, this was the first incident I saw with a wildlife animal that made me realize the dangers roads pose for them and how we need to act to help.

Reading Between the Lines

As you read the title of this post, you’re probably thinking why do turtles matter, how are they so susceptible to roads, etc. This post was inspired from a Facebook post I saw scrolling through my newsfeed about a turtle being purposefully run over, and made me realize the awareness that needs to be spread about how susceptible turtles are to roads, especially as the summer season approaches. The Facebook post set the scene of a woman about to get out of her car and help a turtle cross the road, however, as she gets out of her car, someone comes out of nowhere and swerves to hit the turtle before taking off. Hearing the crunch of it’s shell, the woman soon realizes that the turtle is probably either paralyzed or dead now. Turtles take between six to ten years to reach full maturity, and many cross roads to find nesting sites for their eggs. Anywhere between two to eleven eggs can be laid, but most lay five to six, with the chance of 90% becoming susceptible to predators when they are eggs, and hatchlings even more so.

Importance of Recognition & Awareness

Turtles being hit by vehicles on a road is a very significant source of mortality for this species, mainly due to most turtles being hit are pregnant females looking for a nesting site. Turtles are even removed from the wild, meaning there’s an even more reduced chance for the species to successfully reproduce due to reducing the ability of the population to maintain itself in the wild. There needs to be more awareness from the human population when it comes to recognizing and seeing a wild animal on the road; turtles are very low to the ground when they are seen, and at times it can be difficult to see one when driving in a vehicle. However, when driving, be sure to take some time to scope out the area in front of you that your vehicle will be driving on next, especially the edges of the road; this may not stop the issue of turtles being hit, but it will help resolve this issue as people become more aware of the natural environment around their urbanized settings. If you see a turtle, you can either stop your car to make sure it crosses safely, or utilize yourself to ensure it crosses safely, too.

How to Help

Speaking for myself personally, I live in a rural area where there are a lot of forested areas filled with wildlife. Turtles are something I see often attempting to cross the road, especially as the weather gets warmer and the summer season approaches; this is when most turtle-vehicle collisions occur. When a turtle is seen in the road, there is one main thing that can be done to help save the turtle from being crushed under a vehicle: help it cross the road. This incident actually happened to me this week when I left my house to go on errands; I was driving on my road when I saw a turtle sun-basking in the middle of the road. This is what I did and usually do when I see a turtle in the road: I’ll park my car either on the side of the road or in front of the turtle (i.e., depends on the type of road I’m on and where the turtle is in relation to me and the road) with my hazards on to warn people something is going on. I’ll get out of my car and pick up the turtle by sandwiching it – basically performed just as it sounds, you place either hand on each side of the shell and encircle your thumbs under the bottom of the shell and the other four fingers on top of the shell – and then bringing it to whatever side of the road it was facing to go to. Usually if there’s a body of water nearby, such as a pond, river, or stream, I’ll bring the turtle there as well. Though this technique may not ensure that the turtle is not hit by a car – it could just as easily decide to turn around and cross the road again – it does ensure that you helped a turtle in need by preventing it from getting hit by a vehicle as much as you could. People may think interfering with wildlife in this way is not appropriate, as we are told to stay away from wildlife and not interact. However, being someone who is very familiar with wildlife rehabilitation and management, I can say for certain that helping a turtle cross a road is something that will in turn help increase the turtle population in the long-run and make for less turtles to be harmed on our roads. Helping wildlife out when we see they are in danger or in need is just one thing we can do to protect them, especially to save a turtle from being hit by a vehicle.