The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and Woodland Park Zoo recently released 37 young western pond turtles to a local protected site. This action marks 35 years of conservation efforts for Washington state’s endangered turtle.
The species was listed as endangered in Washington in 1993 and has seen more than 2,300 turtles head-started through the ongoing recovery project.
The released turtles are part of the Western Pond Turtle Recovery Project. Every summer, Wash. Department of Fish and Wildlife biologists retrieve eggs from wild nests and transport them to Woodland Park Zoo.
At the zoo, animal keepers in the Cathy Herzig Basecamp Northwest incubate and hatch the eggs, then raise the hatchlings for several months. They provide an abundant, nutritious diet of fish, worms and other high-protein items to help the turtles grow.
The goal of this head-start program is to get the tiny turtles, which are about the size of a quarter when they hatch, to a suitable size of two to three ounces. This larger size allows them to escape predation from invasive bullfrogs, which consume baby pond turtles.
Western pond turtles have a slow growth rate, making it difficult to increase the population.
“Western pond turtles take 10 to 12 years to reach sexual maturity. Few hatchlings make it to adulthood in the wild. Without intervention, these populations likely would not recover,” Erin Sullivan, an animal curator at Woodland Park Zoo, shared.
Once the turtles are large and confirmed healthy, they are released to protected ponds in the state. Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife biologists monitor these released turtles.
Recovery workers also take to the field annually to monitor nesting sites. WDFW attaches transmitters to adult female western pond turtles and tracks them every 2 hours during nesting season. Protective exclosures are placed around nests to prevent predators from eating the eggs.
Over the past 15 years, a shell disease has emerged, affecting more than 80% of the wild western pond turtle population. This disease causes shell lesions and can lead to lowered fitness and death.
Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign are researching the disease from a microbial and pathological perspective. Their goal is to understand its origin and the role environmental factors might play.
Collaborative recovery efforts over the last three decades have resulted in more than 2,300 turtles being head-started. Self-sustaining populations have been re-established in two regions of the state: Puget Sound and the Columbia River Gorge. Surveys indicate that approximately 800 turtles, encompassing both head-started and wild-hatched individuals, continue to survive and thrive.
In addition to the head-start program, WDFW and its partners work to protect and restore habitat, manage invasive plant and animal species, conduct research to enhance recovery, and increase public awareness regarding the plight of the species.
The conservation project began in 1991 when Woodland Park Zoo and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife joined forces to recover western pond turtles.
In 1990, only about 150 western pond turtles remained in two populations in Washington.
The Oregon Zoo joined the recovery team in 2000. Over the years, other nonprofits, government agencies and private partners have contributed to the multi-institutional conservation project.
“Saving western pond turtles is a story of resiliency. These turtles may be small, but they are tenacious. They are indicators of wetland health, they recycle nutrients and they are both predator and prey. It’s critical we stay on track in preserving these reptiles, so they continue to gain ground and thrive in protected wetlands,” Sullivan added.
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