Wildlife
At Earthroots, we protect Ontario's most vulnerable species — Eastern wolves, Ontario's turtles, and woodland caribou — through science, advocacy, and grassroots action.
Ontario's Turtles: Protecting a Vulnerable Legacy
Ontario is home to eight native turtle species, vital indicators of ecosystem health playing critical roles in nutrient cycling, seed dispersal, and food web balance.
Ontario is home to eight native turtle species, including the Snapping Turtle, Blanding's Turtle, Eastern Musk Turtle, Spotted Turtle, Map Turtle, Painted Turtle, Wood Turtle, and the Midland Painted Turtle. These reptiles are vital to wetlands, rivers, and forests, serving as indicators of ecosystem health and playing critical roles in nutrient cycling, seed dispersal, and food web balance. Protecting turtles is essential not only for biodiversity but for the resilience of Ontario's natural environments.
Cold-Blooded and Seasonal Movers
Turtles are ectothermic, or "cold-blooded," meaning they rely on environmental temperatures to regulate their body heat. Basking in the sun allows them to warm up, while their physiology including movement, feeding, mating, and immune function depends on remaining within a preferred optimal temperature range. Because they cannot generate their own heat, turtles are not found in the far north and must hibernate in winter.
As soon as spring temperatures rise, turtles become active. Males are usually the first to move, seeking mates, "hangout" areas, and wetlands. Female movements peak in June during nesting season, when they travel to traditional nesting sites to lay eggs in soil with the right moisture and texture for incubation. Roads are a major hazard during these seasonal migrations; with roads spaced on average every 1.5 km in southern Ontario and nesting females traveling several kilometers, encounters with vehicles are inevitable.
Life Cycle and Reproduction
Turtles have a unique and fragile life cycle. Incubation times vary with summer weather, but eggs typically hatch in late summer or early fall. The sex of many species, including all turtles found in the Kawarthas, is determined by incubation temperatures: hotter summers produce more females. Less than one in a hundred eggs survives to adulthood. Unlike birds, turtles do not tend their nests, and hatchlings face high predation from raccoons, skunks, foxes, and coyotes. Those that survive must also avoid predators in water and on land. Depending on the species, turtles take 8–25 years to reach maturity.
Adult turtles, however, enjoy few natural predators and a high survival rate. Many live 30–40 years, and some species can live over 100 years. Turtles reproduce slowly. Snapping turtles, for example, may take nearly six decades of nesting to replace themselves in the population. This slow growth and delayed maturity make populations extremely vulnerable to human-induced threats.
What’s Changing in Ontario
In 2025, the Ontario Government made legislative changes that give broad government discretion over which species receive protection. The new Protected Species List under the Species Conservation Act, 2025 (SCA) no longer includes Species of Concern, including the Eastern Musk Turtle, Northern Map Turtle, and Snapping Turtle. Additionally, long-standing requirements to prepare recovery strategies have been removed.
Habitat protection is where the harm is most acute. Ontario’s turtles need stable, connected wetlands and upland nesting sites, yet the SCA shifts the system from automatic habitat protection to a registration-first and permit-if-needed model. This allows many harmful activities to proceed without comprehensive review, relying instead on generalized conditions or proponent-led mitigation. Roads, aggregate pits, housing developments, and drainage alterations can fragment or destroy turtle habitat, increasing mortality and disrupting population recovery.
The weakening of prohibitions and enforcement tools further undermines turtle conservation. Removing “harassment” from legal protections means disturbances, such as vehicle encroachment on nesting sites, recreational pressure, or shoreline alterations are less likely to trigger regulatory safeguards. Meanwhile, the absence of mandatory government-led recovery documents creates uneven, reactive conservation efforts instead of coordinated provincial action.
Ultimately, these legislative changes erode the already fragile protections that Ontario’s turtles rely on. For long-lived, slow-breeding species like turtles, where recovery depends on protecting every nesting female and every piece of habitat, the consequences of this shift could be devastating and long-lasting.
Threats to Turtle Populations
All eight turtle species in Ontario are designated as Species at Risk, with habitat loss being the leading cause of decline. Wetlands, marshes, swamps, bogs, and fens have been drained, filled, or otherwise altered. Roads intersecting these habitats create significant mortality, particularly for nesting females, and are now a leading threat after habitat loss. Other threats include illegal collection for food or the pet trade, boating accidents, and fishing bycatch. Climate change further affects nesting patterns, sex ratios, and habitat conditions.
Habitat Loss
The leading cause of decline. Wetlands, marshes, swamps, bogs, and fens have been drained, filled, or otherwise altered across Ontario.
Road Mortality
Roads intersecting habitats create significant mortality, particularly for nesting females, and are now a leading threat after habitat loss.
Illegal Collection & Other Threats
Other threats include illegal collection for food or the pet trade, boating accidents, and fishing bycatch. Climate change further affects nesting patterns, sex ratios, and habitat conditions.
The Big Picture
Turtles are long-lived, slow-growing species that embody resilience and ecological continuity. Protecting them safeguards wetlands, rivers, and forests, along with countless other species that depend on these habitats. Earthroots' commitment to turtle conservation reflects a broader mission: preserving Ontario's natural heritage and ensuring the health and balance of its ecosystems for the future.
Meet Ontario's Turtles
Blanding's Turtle
Emydoidea blandingii
Fun Fact: Blanding's Turtles can live up to 80 years and have a distinctive bright yellow chin and throat.
Why It Matters: They help maintain wetland ecosystems and indicate healthy aquatic environments.
Snapping Turtle
Chelydra serpentina
Fun Fact: Known for their powerful bite, Snapping Turtles are important scavengers that help keep waterways clean.
Why It Matters: They control populations of insects and fish and recycle nutrients in wetlands.
Eastern Musk Turtle
Sternotherus odoratus
Fun Fact: The smallest freshwater turtle in Ontario, often called the "stinkpot" for the musk it releases when threatened.
Why It Matters: Plays a role in controlling aquatic invertebrate populations.
Spotted Turtle
Clemmys guttata
Fun Fact: Recognizable by the bright yellow spots on its black shell, Spotted Turtles are semi-aquatic and secretive.
Why It Matters: Indicator species for clean, healthy wetlands.
Map Turtle
Graptemys geographica
Fun Fact: Named for the intricate, map-like markings on its shell.
Why It Matters: Helps maintain balance in aquatic ecosystems by feeding on mollusks and small fish.
Painted Turtle
Chrysemys picta
Fun Fact: Ontario's most common turtle, known for the bright red and yellow markings on its shell edges.
Why It Matters: Plays a key role in wetland food webs as both predator and prey.
Wood Turtle
Glyptemys insculpta
Fun Fact: These turtles spend time on land and in water, often creating "sculpted" patterns in soil while foraging.
Why It Matters: Indicator of healthy riparian and forest ecosystems.
Midland Painted Turtle
Chrysemys picta marginata
Fun Fact: Subspecies of Painted Turtle, recognized by its yellow-striped head and red underbelly.
Why It Matters: Helps control insect and plant populations in ponds and wetlands.
A Call to Action
Ontario’s turtles – ancient, slow-moving survivors of our wetlands are facing unprecedented threats from habitat loss, road mortality and weakened environmental laws.
Earthroots is calling for:
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Stronger legislative protections for all eight of Ontario’s Turtle Species that uphold ecological and scientific integrity
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Municipal road agencies to upgrade roads to include wildlife underpasses which allow for the safe underground passage of turtles and other species under already in-place roads which cut through wetlands.
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Stronger protections for Ontario’s wetlands
Earthroots’ commitment to turtle conservation reflects a broader mission: preserving Ontario’s natural heritage and ensuring the health and balance of its ecosystems for the future.
Earthroots is urging bold action now – because without decisive leadership Ontario’s turtles will not survive.
Learn More
Ontario Turtle Conservation Centre
