Dozens of baby turtles released into river near Lake Champlain

(Pike River) The baby turtle, just a few weeks old, wiggles its legs as it is scooped up in a blue plastic container and gently placed in a river south of Montreal. In a gust of wind, it takes flight, swimming deftly through the murky water before disappearing from sight.

The tiny green-and-brown creature, twice the size of a dollar coin, is one of 140 endangered baby spiny softshell turtles being released into a river near Lake Champlain, just a stone’s throw from the U.S. border, as part of a project to help save the species.

As the baby turtle heads out into the wild, it will encounter a range of predators, from raccoons to fish, birds and other turtles. Ultimately, only one to five out of every hundred turtles will survive to adulthood.

The Granby Zoo, east of Montreal, hopes that by collecting turtle eggs and hatching them in an incubator, away from hungry predators and flooding, these little ones will have at least a little head start.

Chelsey Paquette, conservation coordinator, says most turtles are released when they are a few weeks old, although the zoo keeps a few to release at one or two years old.

“So we help these individuals become as great as possible before they go out into the real world.”

M^me Paquette was at a turtle festival in the town of Pike River on Saturday, where local families had the chance to collect baby turtles and slide them into the water.

The Lake Champlain region is the last remaining place in Quebec where the spiny softshell turtle, named for its soft shell and spiny projections near its head, lives. The Canadian government estimates that the number of adult females in the region is in the dozens.

The zoo has released about 2,500 baby turtles since 2009, but hopes to pick up the pace as its focus increasingly shifts from captivity to release.

Patrick Paré, a biologist at the Granby Zoo, says the zoo hopes to help reintroduce some 5,000 individuals into the wild by 2030, including more species of turtles, bats and birds, as part of a conservation mission announced earlier this year.

These efforts also include collaboration with zoos in other countries, including a frog release program in Panama, and partnering with local conservation groups to protect habitat for turtles and other species, he said.

Paré says the spiny softshell turtle is an “umbrella species,” meaning protecting its habitat will also help other species of turtles, birds, frogs and fish survive.

“The spiny softshell turtle, in our project, contributes to the protection of dozens of other animal species,” he said.

The zoo’s mandate also includes education and working with the public. On Saturday, under sunny skies, a long line of people lined up along the river to win a ticket to release a turtle at the Mikinak Turtle Festival.

Carole Ménard and Sabrina Leduc, two neighbours, released their turtle together. They both live near water, where they have become attached to the turtles they see hanging out on the banks of the river. Holding one in their hands only strengthened that bond, they said.

“She knows where to go,” M said.^me Leduc about the little turtle. “She wants to go in the water.”

M^me Paquette said there are signs that the zoo’s spiny softshell turtle release efforts may be working. While numbers are hard to measure, observers have seen females with markings they don’t recognize and smaller egg nests, suggesting new females may be breeding.

However, increasing their numbers is a slow process, given that the turtles do not breed until they are 12 to 15 years old, she said.^me Paquette said some of the turtles the zoo releases will be equipped with tracking devices, which will hopefully yield better numbers.

“Normally, for turtles, it’s about 1 percent of individuals that actually survive to adulthood,” she said. “Most of them won’t survive, but it’s really that 1 percent that we want to help.”