The Blanding’s Turtle (Emydoidea blandingii) population at Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge in Massachusetts had dwindled from an estimated 135 adults in the 1970s to just 54 by 2004, with most survivors old and few juveniles in evidence — a classic signature of a population starved of recruitment. In response, the project began protecting nests in 2003 and headstarting hatchlings (raising them in captivity for their vulnerable first year) before releasing them back into the wetland starting in 2007.
Using nearly 20 years of trapping, telemetry, and capture-recapture data, this study estimates that the population has since nearly quadrupled to sextupled in size, with headstarted juveniles surviving their first year at high rates and the population’s age structure trending markedly younger. It’s an encouraging long-term case study for headstarting as a conservation tool for slow-maturing turtles, though continued monitoring will be needed to confirm the headstarted cohorts are successfully reproducing on their own.
Citation: McElroy, C.L., Windmiller, B., Berkholtz, J., Wilder, E.R., Welch, J.F., Shoemaker, K.T., Kamm, M.D. 2024. Recovery of a Blanding’s Turtle Population Through Nest Protection and Headstarting. Northeastern Naturalist 31(sp12):E25-E42. https://doi.org/10.1656/045.031.s1203