Snapping turtle surprises Thunder Bay, Ont., couple at camp as nesting season begins
Metre-long turtle climbed up cliffside to camp property to lay its eggs
Celebrating the summer solstice at her camp on Whitefish Lake, Erika Maki stepped out of her sauna to see what appeared to be a large rock moving across the grass.
Upon closer inspection, she and her husband, Edward Maki, discovered it was a snapping turtle, spanning about a metre long from the tip of its nose to the end of its tail.
The prehistoric-looking creature made its way to the property's septic field, alternating between walking and crouching before stopping in a soft, sandy spot.
Then, it began to dig.
"It was huge. I couldn't believe it. I didn't know they came that big," said Edward Maki of Thunder Bay, Ont. "It took, I'm going to say, an hour and a half to two hours for it to dig the hole, lay its eggs, fill it back in and then leave."
It's turtle nesting season in Ontario, and the northwest region is home to two varieties: painted turtles and snapping turtles.
What surprised the Makis the most was how far the turtle travelled to get to their camp, which is situated well above the lake on a small cliff. While they often see painted turtles nest closer to the water, they've never seen a snapper climb up to their property.
Stephen Hecnar, a biology professor at Lakehead University, said some turtles travel up to several kilometres to return to their favourite nesting grounds each year.
"They do some geonavigating where they can just follow the slope of the land and just [use] visual cues," said Hecnar. "They can go some incredible distances and they really know their routes and everything."
While the Makis are eagerly awaiting the eggs to hatch — and have set up pylons around the area to let their neighbours know to be careful — Hecnar said it could take until September for them to catch a glimpse of the offspring.
"Then, those little ones will make it down to the water and then they can hibernate underwater as the adults do," he said.
Threats on all sides
Once the female turtle covers up her nest, she'll go back to her usual foraging activities, not returning until the next season.
Oftentimes, the hatchlings will stay in the nest over the wintertime, remaining covered by the soil. While both painted and snapping turtles can tolerate cold conditions, the low temperatures can cause high mortality rates, Hecnar explained.
"When the little ones are moving about, when they're dispersing, that's when they are more vulnerable to predation, and there's lots of other animals that will eat them when they're small," he said.
But predators also pose a danger at the nests themselves. For example, at Point Pelee National Park in southwestern Ontario, nest predation rates range from 60 to 100 per cent, "and some nests are just wiped out completely."
There, the primary predators are raccoons, skunks and opossums, said Hecnar.
At Point Pelee, Hecnar has helped park staff build nest protection boxes, which consist of small wooden cages with a screen on top.
"When you put that over [the nest] and then put a couple rocks on there so the raccoons can't lift it over, that worked really well," he said. "For the species that we did protect the nests, they did come back in numbers."
However, it's important for people to monitor the nests closely to make sure the hatchlings can get out safely.
"You're going to want to be there at that time so you can take the box off, or what some people do is they actually even just cut little exits in the wooden part … right at the ground level."
Across the province, one of the biggest threats affecting turtle species is road mortality, with their protective shells only going so far to shield them from the damage.
"It's important to let people know to watch out for them on roads because when they are moving about, quite often you won't be looking for them," Hecnar said.
Back at the Maki's camp, they're planning to set up a trail camera toward the end of August in hopes of capturing the moment when the hatchlings emerge.
"I'm hoping that we can be there for it," Edward Maki said.
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With files from Mary-Jean Cormier