Chantel Markle, a professor at the University of Waterloo, conducts research that aims to boost the turtle population in Georgian Bay.
Although often spotted crossing and nesting along area roads, turtles in the region are at risk. But a new study from the University of Waterloo sparks some hope of saving them.
Since 2019, researchers from the university have been working in Carling Township, designing and enhancing turtle nests to significantly improve their chances of survival.
“Lots of turtles are out crossing the roads, and it’s very common to see turtles nesting along the sides of the roads, which is dangerous for the female turtle and hatchlings because when they emerge from the nest, they’re tiny — so they’re at risk of being hit by cars,” said Chantel Markle, a professor in the Faculty of Environment at the University of Waterloo and lead author of the study.
“We see turtles nesting on the roadside because of habitat loss and degradation. The study’s goal was to create a more natural nesting space so that the turtles would have additional options to nest in safer locations.”
According to the study published in late May, researchers found that the nest they designed provided a safer environment for incubating eggs compared to natural sites, where the probability of an egg hatching was 10 per cent.
The likelihood of an egg hatching from a created nest was 41 per cent. Researchers chose locations that ensured nests remained warm and drained well after rain. Markle added that since they started monitoring the nests in 2019, there haven’t been significant changes to the initial designs, as they had proven positive results.
“When people think of a turtle nesting, they probably think of big sandy beaches, but that’s not what we have here. So, when we went out, we scanned the rocks in the landscape to look for areas suitable for building off these nest sites,” said Markle. “We would ensure enough soil for the female to lay her eggs. Then, we covered the sites with moss and lichen to create the natural surface cover of these areas — there’s a lot of technicality to building it.”
She added that conducting the research in Carling was a good choice as the university had collected valuable data from previous studies at the site and also because of the high turtle population in the municipality.
Markle said researchers will continue to do monitor the nests and may expand the study.
“Five years is a very small portion of a turtle’s lifespan, so there is still a lot of additional monitoring that we want to do on these sites. I would say the next step is to scale up the design, as we’ve only tested it in our one study area, which was only nine sites in the initial design,” she said. “We’re now trying to work on how we build more and what that would look like.”