Northwestern pond turtles have dwindled in Washington and Oregon, but the zoo’s 15 hatchlings are part of an effort to bring them back.
The northwestern pond turtle hatchlings are each about the size of a cherry tomato, and they’ll stay at the zoo through the summer before being released into the wild next spring — a process the Oregon Zoo calls “head-starting.”
“These hatchlings are very vulnerable to predators,” said Jen Osburn Eliot, who oversees the zoo’s turtle recovery program, in a statement. “At this small size, a bullfrog can gobble them up right out of the nest like a bunch of popcorn.”
The northwestern pond turtle (aka the western or Pacific pond turtle) is an endangered species in Washington and a sensitive species in Oregon. That’s due in part to encroachment from the American bullfrog, a species native to the United States which has contributed to multiple small aquatic species being driven to the brink of extinction.
According to the Oregon Zoo, Eliot and some of her colleagues went earlier this summer with biologists from Washington Fish and Wildlife to retrieve the turtle hatchlings from sites in the Columbia Gorge. They were placed in the zoo’s conservation lab with heat lamps and plenty of food.
Once the little turtles grow to about 50 grams, they’ll be released back in their ponds and monitored from there.
“We make sure they have everything they need to grow,” Eliot said. “When they return to the wild, they’re as large as a 3-year-old turtle.”
Just two decades ago, there were fewer than 100 turtles left in the state of Washington. The Oregon Zoo said that more than 1,500 turtles head-started at zoos have since been released.
“Each hatchling is critical,” Eliot said. “We need to increase the number of turtles in the wild if we’re going to save this species from extinction.”
For the Western Pond Turtle Recovery Project, the Oregon Zoo works with the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bonneville Power Administration, U.S. Forest Service.
