Sunday, October 07, 2007

Rescuing Box Turtles from Maryland’s Planned ICC Highway (part 1)

This is a first in a series of blog entries about saving Box Turtles.

First the facts about turtles:
As you may not know, eastern box turtles are a dwindling species. They have low egg counts, dwindling habitats, collisions with cars, and been beat up by children with sticks. Since box turtles live long lives, most people don't know that babies are not being born in great numbers.

Turtles hardly venture a few miles from their homes. Therefore when a major highway or development happens in their areas, many turtles start wandering in search of a new home. They rarely find one.

One thing that people can do is record the turtles in their areas. Make note of them, and try to keep children away from the area. Some areas have worked with their various Department of Highways to set up safe animal crossing areas for turtles and other slow moving areas.

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