There are eight species of turtle native to my home province of Ontario — the most of any Canadian province. Seven are listed as being at some level of risk, from “species of concern” to “critically endangered.” The eighth, the painted turtle, is uncounted, and the degree to which it may be in decline is unknown.
Turtles, sea turtles, and tortoises are horrifically vulnerable to extinction from multiple causes. They are very slow to mature and have very high mortality among eggs and young. None of Ontario’s turtles are restricted to the province, but elsewhere many species have limited ranges. The flattened musk turtle is found in a single drainage system in Alabama, about seven percent of its original range, and even that is threatened by pollution by the kind of coal mining the current U.S. administration is so enthusiastically promoting.
Sea turtles and their eggs are consumed by humans and the shells used for so-called “tortoise-shell” ornamental carvings in Asia, and as those risks have been fought by conservationists, a deadly new challenge is the enormous proliferation of plastic garbage in the oceans. Some plastic objects resemble natural sea turtle prey, such as jellyfish, and lodge, indigestible, in the guts of the turtles, to deadly effect. Nesting beaches are increasingly usurped by tourist development and even swamped by rising sea levels in response to climate change. An insatiable world appetite for seafood too often results in sea turtles being caught and drowned in fish nets, a “bycatch” of the seafood industry.
Along with sea turtles, used for “turtle soup,” soft-shelled turtles and other species are often killed for their meat. I have seen illegally obtained soft shelled turtles literally cut, while alive, into pieces sold in a store in Toronto.
Most turtles have specific habitat needs, but must travel overland or at least come ashore to dig nests and lay eggs. Roads and causeways often bisect wetlands and there can be a very high mortality from being struck by vehicles on the road.
Increasingly, such habitats – woodlands, bogs, deserts, marshes, or whatever – are fragmented to a degree that results in discreet “pockets” where inbreeding becomes a problem.
Demands of the exotic pet trade also are insatiable and, given the ease by which a captured turtle can be hidden in a backpack, suitcase, or elsewhere, laws to protect them can be unenforceable. The critically endangered bog turtle is limited to very specific bog habitat in the eastern U.S., and yet they are in demand in the pet trade as the country’s smallest turtle. Mind you, the world’s largest turtle, the leatherback, is also endangered, as are the giant tortoises of islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
World-wide the demands of the exotic pet industry are pushing many species toward extinction. Thanks, too, to that industry a prolific American turtle species, the red-eared slider, is an invasive species in parts of Asia, Africa, and North America due to pet owners dumping their turtles into the local environment. As an invasive species, the red-eared slider can outcompete native species, and I’ve seen them eliminate all native turtles in a small pond. And, they also suffer in retaliation programs aimed at eliminating them.
Turtles have been around some 220 million years, but may not survive us!
Keep Wildlife in the Wild,
Barry