{"id":27423,"date":"2020-09-04T11:50:25","date_gmt":"2020-09-04T15:50:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=27423"},"modified":"2020-09-11T13:40:20","modified_gmt":"2020-09-11T17:40:20","slug":"turtle-tias-continue-lending-helping-hand-to-reptile-neighbours","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/turtle-tias-continue-lending-helping-hand-to-reptile-neighbours\/","title":{"rendered":"Turtle Tias continue lending helping hand to reptile neighbours"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Nearly 40 nesting cages and several turtles on the move have kept Aurora\u2019s Turtle Tias busy since May. The group of five, who call themselves \u201cTurtle Tias\u201d, continue to work long, arduous hours with the help of a few other volunteers to ensure the safety of the Snapping Turtles and Painted Turtles that call Aurora home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis has been an incredibly busy season so far, with lots of activity and more nests than we\u2019ve seen in past years. Our peak month was June, and our goal then was to keep the adult females safe, particularly on the busy roads, and to install nesting cages to stop predators digging up and eating the eggs,\u201d said Wendy Kenyon, one of the Tias and Vice President of the Henderson Forest Aurora Ratepayer Association.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks to their efforts, over 30 nesting cages are being monitored along Henderson Drive, close to Salamander Pond, and the wetland area on the north side of the road. Nine other cages are located along the trail system on the east side of Town and in the Arboretum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re preparing for hatchling season which, due to the extreme heat, could begin any day now. We\u2019re regularly monitoring the nesting cages and, once the hatchlings start arriving, we\u2019ll be patrolling the nests every couple of hours from dawn until dusk to make sure the hatchlings don\u2019t escape onto the road. Our goal is to get the hatchlings safely to the nearest wetland. From that point, they\u2019re on their own but at least we\u2019ve given them a head start!\u201d explained Kenyon, who has lived in Aurora for 19 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The five Aurora residents \u2013 Pippette Eibel, Flo Leava, Rebecca Prins, Maricella Sauceda and Wendy Kenyon \u2013 have devoted countless hours of monitoring to keeping the nests safe, in rain and shine, at daytime and in the night. \u201cWe\u2019re a small but committed group of five core volunteers, with others we can call upon when extra help is needed. We have one resident, Irene, who offers her services as a \u2018turtle taxi\u2019 and is happy to transport turtles in need of medical attention,\u201d said Kenyon. \u201cWe are also joined by volunteers like Julian, Sabrina and Eva, who are happy to learn and help out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Road traffic is a major threat to turtles so the Tias spend a lot of time trying to keep the adult females safe during nesting season when they\u2019re crossing busy roads to get to their nesting sites. \u201cIt takes 59 years and about 1,500 eggs for one adult female to be replaced in the population so every one of these mammas is critical to their survival. Turtles are pre-programmed to return to the same area year after year so, sadly, a busy road like Henderson Drive is no deterrent for a determined female. We carefully monitor the nesting females, making sure they\u2019re not disturbed, and then when they\u2019re finished, we make sure they return safely to the nearest wetland.  Nesting cages are installed as soon as possible to protect the nests from predators,\u201d said Kenyon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Turtle Tias also patrol the area to make sure no one is taking any turtles home. Kenyon and her fellow Tias believe it\u2019s all about educating people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s sad to say but there are a few people who want to take them home as pets. These are wild animals and need to be in their natural habitat from the very beginning to learn about how to survive in their environment. Denying them that critical learning experience can severely compromise their ability to survive. Since Snapping Turtles can live for over a hundred years and grow very large, they are not appropriate pets. Besides, it\u2019s illegal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year, the Turtle Tias successfully released 140 turtle Snapping Turtle hatchlings. \u201cThis year, we\u2019re anticipating more, but so much depends on how well we can continue to protect the nests from predators, even with cages installed. It\u2019s a sad fact that less than 1 per cent of turtle eggs reach adulthood but at least we can increase those odds,\u201d Kenyon pointed out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the COVID-19 pandemic taking root earlier this year, matters changed altogether. An upside was that the community became more engaged in the turtles\u2019 well-being.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey alerted us when turtles were in danger, like when they were attempting to cross a busy road or when they were injured. Far more people have been out walking these past five months and that\u2019s helped us keep a communal eye on our reptilian friends,\u201d said Kenyon, admitting that locals have been uplifted by being part of something positive during these particularly dark times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With greater interest, there has been a downside too as some people get too close to nesting females. \u201cWe realize it\u2019s exciting to watch but what they likely don\u2019t know is how stressful it is for these nesting mammas when they\u2019re disturbed laying their clutch. In some cases, they\u2019ll abandon the process altogether which can prove fatal. We\u2019re trying to educate as and when we can and most people are very understanding once they know why we\u2019re asking them to keep a certain distance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being a turtle volunteer isn\u2019t a glamourous job \u2013 its hard work. But it\u2019s rewarding too. As Kenyon points out, \u201cThe sight of a tiny hatchling emerging from the ground or a magnificent adult female slowly making her way back to the wetland after successfully laying her clutch makes everything so worthwhile.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Kinjal Dagli Shah<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nearly 40 nesting cages and several turtles on the move have kept Aurora\u2019s Turtle Tias busy since May. The group of five, who call themselves \u201cTurtle Tias\u201d, continue to work long, arduous hours with the help of a few other volunteers to ensure the safety of the Snapping Turtles and Painted Turtles that call Aurora […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":27416,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/2020-09-03-04.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-78j","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-15 17:57:12","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27423\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}