Why are turtles crossing the roads?

It might sound like a variation on a clichéd joke, but for turtles, getting to the other side of a road is much more than a punchline, explains Nathalie Karvonen, executive director of the Toronto Wildlife Centre. 

“They often have to cross roads to lay their eggs in their nesting spot,” she says, adding turtles also find the sandy shoulders of secondary highways and rural roads very appealing for egg laying. “For years and years, they use the same spot. For snapping turtles, that can be up to 50 years.” 

Extra worrying to Karvonen is the fact that seven of Ontario’s eight endemic turtle species are at risk or endangered. 

“This is a group of animals that is in real trouble in Ontario and other areas, and that, as a species, is slow to reproduce.”

Turtles can take anywhere from 15 to 20 years to reach sexual maturity. If they die on the road before reaching adulthood, it becomes more difficult for them to replace their population. 

And treatment isn’t cheap — wildlife rehabilitation centres, which survive entirely through donations, will in many cases have to take care of these turtles for months, even years.

Drivers urged to take care 

Turtle shells are made up of bone, so when a heavy vehicle rolls over them, there can be multiple fractures to treat. Snapping turtles, which can’t hide in their shell, will often suffer head injuries.

“Most of the time it’s accidental,” says Carstairs. “The small ones look like rocks on the road and you hit them as you’re in a rush to get to the cottage. We try to focus on the education side of it: what to look for, when to look for them, and then how to help them across the road safely.”

Karvonen agrees that education is key. She urges people to continue to take injured turtles to centres when they are found.

“Even with good intentions, you sometimes have what I like to call the ‘hostage situation,’ where people are keeping them at home in the hopes of having a pet, which is illegal and very upsetting, or doing amateur medical treatment. These injuries are very serious and incredibly painful and they need professional help.”