One evening this past August, Marc Bourgeois and his daughter Justine were among the lucky participants of a very delicate undertaking.
Starting last year, a handful of volunteers and scientists began a yearly ritual of collecting turtle eggs on Petrie Island, a conservation area off the shore of Orléans, Ont.
The area is home to several at-risk species that might otherwise get gobbled up by predators due in part to increased urbanization.
The turtle guardians lovingly watch over the hatchlings in a lab, finally releasing the tiny vulnerable creatures back onto the island a couple months later.
The hope — a huge gamble, really — is that some will make it into the one per cent of area turtles that reach adulthood, therefore helping the population thrive.
That August night, the Bourgeois family was participating in the first of the summer’s 15 releases, having registered early enough to avoid a waitlist numbering in the hundreds.
“They have so many good little faces!” Justine exclaimed, peppering some baby map turtles with photos.
One by one, the turtles were placed on the shore, volunteers taking care to scare away any amphibians that were a little too curious.
Once, a big bullfrog grabbed a baby turtle but “she didn’t have time to swallow it,” explained Mason Laforest.
“A man … grabbed her to make her spit out the turtle.”
A careful watch
Laforest is a forestry and wildlife environment student at Collège La Cité. He oversees the turtle release program for Friends of Petrie Island, a volunteer group that — since 1997 — has been dedicated to preserving the island’s ecology.
One day last spring, Laforest got a phone call about two map turtles seen near one of the parking lots on the island. The nice weather and splendid sunsets would attract human visitors, he feared, so he rushed over there.
Michael Ricco, the president of Friends of Petrie Island, was waiting for him. So was a family who’d stuck around to help keep a watchful eye over the turtles and urge drivers to park further away.
They didn’t want visitors, even on foot, to get too close to the turtles because “the more you interact with them, the more they move,” Ricco said.
After more than an hour, the two turtles settled into the same area they find every year to dig their nest and lay eggs.
Turtle eggs are a delicacy for skunks, foxes and raccoons. It only takes a few minutes for them to suck out the insides of the eggs, leaving behind only empty shells.
This year, Ricco had to physically separate a turtle that was laying eggs from two rapacious raccoons.
“It’s a spectacle we see every day, ” Laforest said of empty shells littering the beaches.
Shepherding the eggs
This year, around 40 people helped Friends of Petrie Island search for turtles and nests from May to July.
The number of eggs laid depends on the species, but in one nest alone this year, the group collected 60 eggs.
Five different species of turtles live on the island: the snapping, the map, the painted, the speckled and the musky. Program operators have permits from the Canadian Wildlife Federation and other ministerial authorizations to move species at risk.
Brooke MacIsaac, a Carleton University biology student, has been trained by Laforest to properly handle the eggs.
One evening in June, four map turtles laid eggs next to each other. Laforest and MacIsaac, both knees on the ground, dug into the earth, taking care not to damage the precious cargo.
“I’ll just make the hole a little bigger so it’s easier to pick up,” Laforest murmured.
We know that they don’t all survive.– Malcolm Fenech, the turtle program’s consulting biologist
After being placed in plastic containers filled with a little sand, the eggs must be kept in the same angle as they were left on the island, MacIsaac said.
There’s a little air pocket in the egg, and if you move it, the turtle might not develop, she said.
By the end of the summer, more than 350 baby turtles were released from 427 collected eggs.
But first the eggs had to make a stopover at “the incubator.”
Breaking out
The incubator is essentially a small minibar with two shelves and a glass door.
It’s located inside the National Capital Commission’s River House, in a lower-floor laboratory operated by the Ottawa Riverkeeper organization.
The group works hand in hand with Friends of Petrie Island.
Wire mesh frames and traffic cones help protect turtles on the island, but the incubator goes a step beyond that, said Malcolm Fenech, the turtle’s program’s consulting biologist.
The fridge, where the eggs are kept for two months, maintains a temperature of 28 C during the day and 26 C at night — ideal for creating a population that’s 60 per cent female and 40 per cent male.
As soon as they arrive at the laboratory, the eggs are numbered and transferred into containers filled with a mixture of water and vermiculite, a clay mineral that helps with drainage, according to Laforest. Too much water could damage the eggs.
The first hatchlings of 2024 surprised the team by appearing several days early.
To break its shell, a turtle uses its diamond, also known as an “egg tooth,” which disappears after a while. The turtle’s full breakout can take several days.
Once completely out of the egg, the baby turtles are transferred to an aquarium where a little water has been added. They’re kept there for two to three days before being released back into the wild.
Gently, Laforest takes a newborn turtle and turns it over to inspect its yolk sac for signs of infection.
New turtles were born every day in August. The snapping turtles, which resemble little dinosaurs, like to “play hard” and have to be separated from others, Laforest noted with a laugh.
Some map turtles “can be really stubborn and don’t want to go in the water,” Laforest said, making them “the most difficult to release.”
The painted turtles are initially so small — only four grams at birth — that the slightest infection “could spell their end.”
One of them weighed barely three grams, Laforest said. “She had so much trouble swimming that we had to put her on seaweed so she could be stable and get used to her new environment.”
Back home
After their time in the aquariums, the turtles were returned home to Petrie Island, the collectors having noted the precise location of their eggs.
In recent years, Fenech has counted more than 100 nests annually on Petrie Island.
But not all the eggs can be saved.
“We also have to leave some to feed the other species. It’s a question of balance,” Fenech said.
Program participants are also reminded of the potential dangers awaiting turtles who’ve been so cared for in the months leading to their release — like when they’re told the story of the bullfrog that pounced.
“We know that they don’t all survive,” Fenech said. “Maybe they’ll die right after being released.”
But the turtle program’s operators remain optimistic that 10 to 20 per cent of their hatchlings will reach adulthood.
Even if only one of the turtles they release reaches maturity, it could lay up to 100 eggs in its lifetime, Fenech said.
“It’s by increasing their chances of becoming adults that we will help the turtles of Petrie Island.”