Outdoor Elements
It's Turtle Time
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Turtles are on the move, laying eggs in early summer. Evie shares a recent turtle encounter and offers tips on what to do if you spot a turtle crossing the road or discover one laying eggs in your yard. Learn how small actions can make a big difference for these slow-moving reptiles. š¢šš± #TurtleHatching #WildlifeTips #HelpTurtles
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Outdoor Elements is a local public television program presented by PBS Michiana
Outdoor Elements
It's Turtle Time
Clip | 4m 29sVideo has Closed Captions
Turtles are on the move, laying eggs in early summer. Evie shares a recent turtle encounter and offers tips on what to do if you spot a turtle crossing the road or discover one laying eggs in your yard. Learn how small actions can make a big difference for these slow-moving reptiles. š¢šš± #TurtleHatching #WildlifeTips #HelpTurtles
Problems playing video?Ā Ā Ā |Ā Closed Captioning Feedback
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorshipIt's turtle time in the southern Great Lakes region in June and early July.
Female turtles are emerging from ponds and slow moving rivers or streams to find a spot to lay eggs, and they crawl up out of the water looking for a warm, usually sunny, usually somewhat sandy spot to dig a hole and deposit their eggs.
I found this map turtle walking across the lawn in my yard as it was probably headed towards an agricultural field where the soil is super sandy and it's really sunny.
By the way, you can tell it's a map turtle because on the face there isn't really any red or big strong yellow facial marks.
There's no red spots around the top carapace and the back, and the shell is jagged like a snapping turtle.
But it doesn't have a big, muscular tail like a snapping turtle does.
This one was kind of shy.
She tucked her head in as I approached to get the video of her as she was paused there while I was observing her before she headed back over across the road.
By the way, if you ever spot a turtle crossing the road, good reminder is moving in the direction in which it was headed because in fact, it might be looking for a place to lay eggs.
If you do find a turtle in your yard and know that it has laid eggs, you could protect the nest.
And the reason is because herpetologists say that anywhere from 50 to 90% of all turtle nests are predated by raccoons.
So raccoons come up in the evening, they smell that fresh dirt.
They dig up that nest and eat all the eggs.
But you could do something like this where the nest is protected by a cage that is partially submerged into the ground, so that critters like raccoons can't dig underneath and dig out that nest.
The eggs will hatch anywhere from just a few months, to later in the year.
And some of that just kind of depends on the weather and the temperature and the soil temperature.
Every once in a while, the eggs will hatch, especially if the nest was laid late in the season.
The eggs will hatch and the little hatchlings will stay in the ground over winter in a hibernation state.
And that was probably the case of this small snapping turtle my husband Craig found in our yard in early June.
It likely spent the winter as a hatchling, hibernating in the ground, and then came up out of the soil when the soil temperatures were warm enough for it to do so.
I mentioned that raccoons often predate or damage many, many turtle nests.
And here's a great example that I found along a slow moving stream.
The big sandy bank along side has many, many, many turtle nests.
Every year, turtles come up to lay eggs there.
But unfortunately, as you can see, every nest has been damaged and destroyed by raccoons.
You can see the holes, the cavities that the raccoons kind of dug back up, and then the remains of the leathery shells of the turtles.
The oval shaped ones are from probably painted turtles, and the round ones are from snapping turtles.
Again, if you see a turtle and it's on a pathway or a place where you're hiking and you think, wow, it's really far from water, I should move it back to the water.
You probably want to resist the urge to do so, as she's probably hiked all the way up here to find a good nestlings spot, and she's just going to have to walk back up again if you bring her back down to the water.
Remember, you can find your own outdoor elements when you visit area parks and natural areas.
We'll see you soon.
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Outdoor Elements is a local public television program presented by PBS Michiana