AUGUSTA – The Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, in conjunction with the Nature Conservancy, is asking motorists to be aware of rare turtles crossing area roads and watch for road signs alerting motorists to turtle crossing areas.
Motorists encountering these roadside turtle signs should reduce their speed and be on the lookout for jaywalking turtles. Drivers who come across a turtle crossing the road and want to help are asked to safely pull over to the side of the road and, only if it is safe to do so, move the turtle to the side of the road in the direction it was headed.
May through July is a critical period when Maine’s female turtles undertake risky overland forays to reach nesting areas. During this time, turtles often cross roads, sometimes with fatal consequences.
Blanding’s and spotted turtles, both protected under Maine’s Endangered Species Act, have seen much of their freshwater wetland habitat destroyed or degraded.
Blanding’s and spotted turtles are extremely long-lived animals that take a minimum of seven (spotted) to 14 (Blanding’s) years to reach reproductive age. This, coupled with low hatchling success, places a premium on adult survivorship. Recent population analyses of several freshwater turtle species indicate that as little as 2 to 3 percent additive annual mortality of adults is unsustainable, leading to local population extinction. Simply put, there is probably no group of organisms in Maine for which roads represent a more serious threat to long-term population viability than turtles.
For more information about Maine’s turtles and work by MDIFW to survey and protect them, please contact wildlife biologists Phillip deMaynadier (Bangor research office), Derek Yorks (Bangor research office), or Scott Lindsay (Gray Region A office).
Funding for this project comes primarily from the Loon Conservation License Plate and donations to the state’s Chickadee Check-off. Additional research support was provided by the Maine Department of Transportation, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, The Nature Conservancy and the Maine Outdoor Heritage Fund.
Do we have any of these signs around here? Maybe I’m not driving in the right places, but I don’t think I’ve seen any.
Kippy, it’s only for rare turtles, many of which are in southern Maine. Maybe there’s more signage down there. There’s a good resource here for rare turles, which includes their range:
http://www.maine.gov/ifw/wildlife/species/endangered_species/reptile_amphibian_list.htm
I have seen a lot of turtles this year, today I saw a nice man stop on the Knowlton Corner Rd and pick one up and move it out of the road, it was huge! I have never seen one that big here in Farmington. Please be careful with all the animals that may get in the road.
Why don’t we just pass a no driving in may and june ordinance, that should keep everyone happy happy happy. Especially if the turtles don’t make any noise or the peeps helping them cross the road.