- [Narrator] In these mountains, a small creature is hiding in the soft, wet ground.

The saturated soils and low vegetation create the perfect habitat for bog turtles.

- Bog turtles are a unique species, and I think they're just really fascinating.

They are these sort of mysterious animals that live down in the mud in these really cool habitats.

- [Narrator] This deep, mucky soil conceals the bog turtle's most colorful trait.

This guy, you can't tell cause he's being a little shy, but they have these beautiful, bright orange patches on both sides of their neck.

- [Narrator] The bright patches range from yellow to a reddish orange, and they're part of what makes the bog turtle unique.

You can also identify the bog turtle by its brownish-black shell, covered in scutes, the bony plates on a turtle shell.

Biologists can tell the age of a young bog turtle by looking at the scutes.

Although their average lifespan remains unknown, some scientists have found bog turtles as old as 50.

These omnivorous creatures eat seeds, berries, and insects, but their most notable feature is their size.

Only an inch long when hatched, fully grown adults are under 4 1/2 inches long.

That makes them North America's tiniest turtle.

Meet Casper.

[tool beeping] Killian can learn a lot from Casper with just a few observations.

The data record is so specific that it can pinpoint who his mother is, what cohort he grew up with, and even the exact day he was born.

When Killian and the other scientists find a turtle, they have to work them up.

That's a kind of checkup.

At 4 1/2 inches long and weighing five ounces- - This is a very healthy individual.

This is a very large male, and you can see it's not that big, but this is considered to be a large, healthy male.

- [Narrator] Casper is thriving, but bog turtle populations are not.

Poaching for illegal collections is a huge danger for these turtles.

To combat this, field biologists insert tags below the turtle skin.

These tags function like barcodes.

If a turtle is poached, biologists can scan the barcode, tracing the turtle back to its original site.

- So instead of it having to live the rest of its life in captivity because you can't release captive turtles unless you know where they're from, we know that we can take it back to this site and it can find its home again.

- [Narrator] But poaching is just one of many reasons bog turtle populations worldwide are at risk of extinction, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, or IUCN.

- The IUCN recognizes bog turtles as critically endangered.

That's the same status that they designate black rhinoceros.

- [Narrator] In North Carolina, bog turtles are protected by federal law, but their habitat is not.

Something as simple as this drainage ditch could destroy bog turtle habitats.

Farmers dig these ditches to drain the bogs and make the land usable for agriculture.

- What the ditches do is that they draw all the water out of the wetlands, so they're drawing out habitat that was previously inundated or wet with with mud, and bog turtles rely on mud for thermoregulation and for hibernation.

So that's really, it essentially makes habitat unusable for bog turtles.

- [Narrator] Only about 10 to 20% of mountain bogs in Southern Appalachia remain, and many are in poor condition.

This leaves few homes for bog turtles.

Many of these homes are ghost sites, with few turtles left.

- We have a bog turtle or two or five, but you don't have enough for the population to be safe.

You don't have enough for it likely to persist into the future.

- [Narrator] That's where organizations like Tangled Bank Conservation, the Nature Conservancy, US Fish and Wildlife Service, and the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission come in.

They've taken steps to protect the bog turtle.

They track turtles to follow population numbers, and work with farmers to protect mountain bogs.

They also protect young turtles by caging their nests.

The number one threat to a fledgling turtle is predators.

Ecologists are still learning about the bog turtle's role in the ecosystem.

- A population or a species is in decline.

It's endangered, it's threatened.

Anytime that happens, it's a sign that things are out of balance in the ecosystem.

Something's not going right.

- This is a community that is a diverse one.

It's a community that's persisted for tens of thousands of years.

It's dynamic, and bog turtles are a part of that dynamic system and they're beautiful.

I love spending time observing them.

I love being in these spaces.

- We have a bit of an obligation as people to kind of undo some of the damage that our fellow people and our ancestors, and even ourselves have done.

And the bog turtle especially has been really negatively impacted by human activity.

- [Narrator] Once scientists have gathered the conservation data they need, they release the turtles back into their boggy home with the hope that these tiny turtles can beat their biggest challenges.

- [Scientist] They belong here, and I'm continuing to learn more about them every day.