(Glyptemys insculpta)
Status: Threatened

This means that without some form of action, they could disappear from Canada or the entire planet.

Identification guide:

  1. A ridged carapace (upper shell), which has raised growth rings on each scute (section).

  2. A yellow plastron (lower shell), with black splotches on each segment.

  3. Orange or red colouration on the neck and legs.

  4. Size: 16-25cm long.

Habitat & Behaviour

Wood turtles (Glyptemys insculpta) live near clear rivers and streams with sand or gravel bottoms. In our climate, they are active from late April to November. They usually nest in June on gravel or sand riverbanks, but sometimes nest in gravel pits or along the shoulders of roads.

During the summer, they usually forage near the water for food such as worms, slugs, and berries. Some may venture further away from water, especially females during nesting season.

Threats

Wood turtles do not lay many eggs, and are easily disturbed while nesting. Only a small proportion of juveniles reach reproductive maturity, which can take fourteen years or more! This means that the loss of even a few adults can affect a population.

Although it is illegal, removal from the wild is still a serious threat, along with road kill, loss of riverside habitat with natural vegetation, and increased predation, such as by raccoons.

Ways You Can Help

Allow wood turtles to stay in the wild where you find them.

Maintain natural vegetation along waterways and minimize alterations to shoreline habitat.

Be watchful for turtles on roadways and avoid using ATVs in wood turtle nesting habitat (patches of sand or gravel along riverbanks).

Farmers can prevent mortality of wood turtles by raising the cutter bar on mowers by 6” for the first passes near waterways, and aligning row crops parallel to the watercourse to keep turtles from entering fields.

This project was undertaken with the financial support of Environment Canada.

To find out more about Species at Risk conservation, contact our Conservation Manager, Carli Le Roux, below
or by calling (506) 457-2398.