Nesting & Egg Incubation
Egg Collection
At the beginning of June, our team prepares to work long shifts (morning and night) to survey roadsides as turtles begin laying eggs. These eggs are prone to predation from foxes, fishers, raccoons and even bears, which is why our team tries to give these hatchlings a fighting chance.
Our team will work long hours driving Shawanaga roads and excavating or nest caging any nest we find. In 2024 we incubated over 1000 eggs from 52 nests and put out 41 nests cages around our community.
Egg Incubation
After an incubation period of about 60 days, turtles will start hatchling in our incubators! We then wait for their yolk sac to fully absorb before putting them in plastic bins with water while the rest of the clutch hatches.
Hatchling Release
We have several community events where members can come out and help us release baby turtles back into the wetland closest to where mom laid.
Turtle nesting and incubation is a crucial program we run each year to help out our species-at-risk turtles. Without this program hundreds and hundreds of turtle eggs would be predated each and every year contributing to the population decline these turtles are already facing.
