Twice this spring I have been in a position to save the lives of two pedestrians as they crossed a road. What makes it even more meaningful is that both walkers are considered “threatened” in Minnesota.

The first one I spotted was running, a weird description for a turtle, because it was more like swimming over the gravel road as fast as it could. I never pass up helping a Blanding’s turtle cross a road. 

After walking the turtle across the road, I peered into the front end of the shell where the shy turtle had pulled its head. I found myself smiling at the Blanding’s own perpetual, gentle smile on a face that reminds me of the most endearing alien of all time: E.T.  The turtle’s distinctive lemon-yellow throat is like a welcoming sunrise. 

I turned the turtle over to examine the bottom shell known as the plastron. The plastron is made up of scutes, resembling puzzle pieces put together. The slightly flat plastron told me it was a female turtle. The male’s bottom shell is slightly dished in.

I counted the growth rings on the scutes to get a rough idea of the turtle’s age. 

I could see 25-30 rings, but part of the scutes were worn smooth with age so it was  impossible to get a firm read. Blanding’s turtles can live to 70 years. The turtle I held was easily over three decades.

Given that it was early May, I suspect this turtle was making an overland trip from where it had spent the winter in hibernation to a shallow, warmer pond to mate. May and June are dangerous months for turtles. After mating this turtle will hike to a proper nesting area and then after the eggs are laid she will hike back to a wetland or lake for the summer. All this overland traveling might require road crossings.

The second turtle I helped, just last week, is a neighbor. I spotted her on the county road about half a mile from my house. She had already hiked about a quarter-mile from a shallow slough, where she had likely mated. Now she was headed east and still had a half mile to get to the deeper lake. I suspect she will lay her eggs in her excavated hole, near the intended lake, during the second week of June. 

With luck, the eggs will remain undiscovered by predators. Roughly sixty five days later they will hatch. Then the cookie-sized youngsters will scurry for the lake water where they are safer. That lake will be their primary home for a decade or more. They will not breed until they are 10-15 years old. Very little is known about young Blanding’s turtles. 

While all turtles can pull their legs, tail and head into the shell, the Blanding’s turtle has a flexible plastron that allows them to seal themselves up much better than most turtles in Minnesota. 

This turtle is threatened because it is losing its habitat: wetlands and adjacent open high ground. It is unlikely they will get off the “threatened” list with continual human residential and industrial development.

What would Dr. William Blanding, a keen naturalist from Philadelphia, think of the paucity of turtles that he first described to science back in the 1830s?

I encourage anyone who has the good fortune of coming across one of these gentle, ponderous, reptilian survivors to offer it some help in crossing the road. And if you are really lucky and find one nesting, please leave it alone. 

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