The females are induced into labor, and the eggs are collected and incubated in nurseries.Įach female is numbered and identified - as are the eggs she lays - to provide a scientific record of each mother and clutch of baby turtles that are entered into a database containing DNA and other genetic history. Rising populations of these predators in many areas of the turtle’s historic range contribute to the loss of this species and why so few turtles hatch or reach adulthood.Įach spring, ecologists use radio telemetry to locate tagged and gravid (pregnant) adult female Blanding’s turtles in DuPage forest preserves, which they take to the Urban Stream Research Center or Willowbrook Wildlife Center. Other predators include the skunk, opossum and mink. Raccoons are the most voracious predators of Blanding’s turtle eggs and hatchlings, and they will even take juveniles and occasionally the adult turtle. In the wild, its predators forage turtle nests and eat the eggs or even small hatchlings! During their 60-day incubation period, 90 percent of turtle nests are destroyed by predators every year. Predators are also one of the Blanding's turtle's greatest threats. In addition, a female Blanding's will produce a clutch of only 12 to 13 eggs once per year. The medium-sized turtle can live more than 80 years, but it only reaches reproductive maturity between ages 14 to 20 years. By the late 1990s Blanding’s turtles were already in jeopardy in Illinois.īlanding’s turtles live in wetlands and marshy areas in the Midwest and Northeast but populations are threatened by habitat loss, automobile traffic and predators.
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