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Protecting Local Species continued
A Head Start for Turtles Female Blanding’s turtles in enclosure in Dragonfly Marsh on
particular often do not lay their first the zoo grounds. There, the hatchlings
Everybody knows that turtles are slow. As clutch of eggs until they are 12 years spend their first months of life free
some of the slowest animals, they have of age, if not older. Predators such as from predators and other threats, but
their own survival strategies, a suit of raccoons and opossums present a grave otherwise they receive all the benefits of a
armor not the least among them. But threat to depleted populations of this natural life: hunting and eating wild prey
their slow rate of reproduction does species in the Chicago area. In some items that enter through the mesh and
raise concern to conservationists. They parts of their range, Blanding’s turtles absorbing UVB rays from the sun. Plus,
take many years to reach adult size and have almost a zero percent hatch rate they are far enough removed from their
start reproducing. This is a significant because the predators dig up every nest. human caregivers that there is no risk of
vulnerability for many turtle species. If them becoming acclimated to people.
a population declines due to predation, To combat these threats, Andy Snider,
human disturbance, or another factor, it curator of reptiles, amphibians, and By season’s end, the turtles are slightly
can be many years before any hatchlings fish for the Chicago Zoological Society, larger than they would have been if left
are old enough to lay eggs of their own. and his animal care staff partner with to their own resources in the wild, likely
And because the females of many turtle the Forest Preserve District of DuPage due to the supplemental food they receive
species lay only one or two clutches of a County to raise hatchling Blanding’s once or twice a week. The hatchlings
dozen or fewer eggs each year, it may be turtles at Brookfield Zoo. The hatchlings are released into their natural habitat in
several generations and many decades arrive from DuPage County in the spring DuPage County before winter’s arrival.
before a population is fully recovered. and are introduced into a mesh-walled Each spring, the process begins again.
14 GATEWAYS | NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH
