DES MOINES, Iowa – 57 baby Blanding’s turtles have been taken in by the Blank Park Zoo as part of a conservation effort with Iowa State and Iowa DNR.
The Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) started the project several years ago with a grant proposal that would work to restore diminished prairie habitats and help support the regrowth of the Iowa Blanding’s turtle population.
“Our job at DNR is to provide the right habitat, to make sure they have the home they need, that they have enough acreage, the right amount of water and the right amount of prairie to hopefully survive into the future, said Karen Kinkead, the Wildlife Diversity Coordinator for the Iowa DNR.
The DNR then brought in research students from Iowa State University to help them gather information about the turtles and their habitats. The researchers began observing prairie habitats and the movement and lifestyle of the Blandings’ turtle.
“So I go to DNR-owned sites in central Iowa and I physically capture them, we bring them back to our lab,” said Lizzy Lang, a graduate research student studying natural resources and ecology at Iowa State University. “Then we measure them, weigh them, determine their age and gender. We then place transmitters on them so that we can track them. Once we collect all that data, we take them back to the lab and I analyze them to see different patterns in their movements.”
This research is then returned to the DNR so they can take appropriate steps to restore prominent Blanding’s turtle habitat. But restoring habitats is not enough; they must also revive the dwindling Blanding population.
Iowa State researchers captured five Blanding’s turtles and took them to the Blank Park Zoo, where they were able to hatch 57 Blanding’s turtle babies. The mothers have been returned to their habitat, but the babies will continue to grow and mature at the Blank Park Zoo.
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“Our job here is to take care of them, make sure they have food and good clean water, and that they can just grow without worrying about predation or whatever, bad weather, climate change and things like that,” says Chris Eckles, the Chief Engagement Officer at the Blank Park Zoo.
Taking baby animals into your home so that they have the opportunity to grow and develop without danger is called ‘headstarting’ and it gives the young a better chance of survival in the wild. These turtles will also be tagged so that researchers can continue to gather information and monitor the turtles and their environment.
While conservation efforts are a good start, raising awareness can help spread further change in communities. To raise awareness for Blanding’s turtle conservation efforts, the Blank Park Zoo hosted Discover the Wild: Turtle’s. Families were able to learn about Blanding’s turtles, their habitats and why their conservation is important to Iowa.
“We want people to learn about turtles, about organizations like the DNR and Iowa State and other organizations that are committed to turtle conservation and doing activities and just learning and having fun,” Eckles said.
“Turtles act as an important predator in wetlands for smaller species, but they are also prey for larger species. So they really help maintain the health of wetland ecosystems,” says Lang. “Wetlands are super important to help with water quality in Iowa, which is also important for Iowans”
The Blanding fry will continue to grow in Blank Park until they are approximately 3 to 4 inches tall. The turtles are currently on track to be released back into their habitat in the spring of 2025.
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