The farmer who loves turtles

Monday, April 2, 2012

Some farmers see an endangered species habitat designation on their property as a threat to their use of their land. Frank Dorombozi thinks otherwise. The cash crop farmer has installed a 20-by-40 foot sand and pea gravel nesting area for Blandings turtles on his farm beside Highway 24 south of Brantford.

After a study of radio-frequency-equipped turtles, the Ministry of Transportation installed permanent fencing to steer turtles through a six-foot-wide culvert from a swamp on the other side of the highway to lay their eggs.

Julia Phillips, Adopt-A-Pond Co-ordinator with the Toronto Zoo, which runs The Ontario Turtle Tally program, says a Blandings turtle travels as far as three kilometres in search of a suitable location to lay eggs, often in freshly-tilled corn and soybean fields. After eggs incubate for 60 to 90 days, newly hatched turtles make their own way to the closest water. Only about one per cent live to reproduce. Phillips says that's why the turtle is endangered.

To prevent poaching, the Ministry of Natural Resources doesn't reveal locations, Phillips says. In some cultures, turtle meat is eaten. Small turtles are captured and sold as pets. Seven of eight species of turtles found in Ontario have been declared endangered.

The Ontario Turtle Tally wasn't aware that these turtles lived in the swamp near the Highway 24 corridor until a passerby reported that eight females were killed by traffic in one day.
Dorombozi says he had no idea that his farm was a nesting ground. BF