Driving on a rural, shady road near Augusta last weekend, I made a sad tally: Within a mile, I counted the carcasses of at least five turtles that had been run over and flattened on the two-lane stretch.
I suspected that most — if not all — of them were females. June is the time of year when females of more than 10 turtle species regularly cross roads and highways in search of a suitable dry spot to lay their eggs. The species include painted turtles, box turtles, stinkpots or musk turtles, mud turtles, map turtles, as well as yellow-bellied sliders, cooters, softshell turtles, common snapping turtles and (on the coast) diamondback terrapins.
Losing any turtle from a human-induced hazard is not good. But it’s even more grievous when the turtle is an egg-laden female. “For a gravid female that gets hurt and killed on the road, you’ve lost her and her eggs,” said John Jensen, a herpetologist with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.
Turtles need all the luck they can get to survive. They breed late in life and usually have low reproductive and nestling survival rates. The loss of just 5 percent of adult female turtles from an area can lead to serious population declines.
Turtles of either sex also cross highways to find mates, food and suitable habitat. DNR biologists say the potential for road kill is increasing as development covers Georgia’s landscape with more roads that further fragment wildlife habitat.
For instance, populations of the Eastern box turtle, one of Georgia’s most widespread turtles, “are seriously jeopardized by habitat fragmentation resulting from urban or suburban development, which is exacerbated by increased road mortality,” according to the book “Amphibians and Reptiles of Georgia.”
No one knows for sure how many turtles and other wild creatures — opossums, frogs, birds — are killed on Georgia’s highways each year, but wildlife experts estimate the toll is in the hundreds of thousands.
So, drive carefully. Stay alert for wildlife on the road, especially after a rain when creatures move about more. And if you stop and pick up a road-crossing turtle to help it avoid being run over, make sure you take it to the side of the road in which it was heading. Otherwise, it will try to cross again.
IN THE SKY: The moon will be new Saturday night. By Sunday evening, look for a thin crescent moon low in the west just after dark, said David Dundee, Tellus Science Museum astronomer. Mercury and Venus are low in the west just after dark. Venus sets about an hour later. Both planets will appear near the moon on Monday night. Saturn is high in the east just after dark. Jupiter and Mars can’t be easily seen right now.
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