A cool spring and a hot storm-filled summer have added to the already long list of challenges faced by endangered Spiny Softshell Turtles who call the Thames watershed home.
The Upper Thames River Conservation Authority (UTRCA) said Wednesday the extreme weather conditions have kept researchers working with the tiny turtles on high alert.
"The abnormally cool weather in April and May resulted in a two-week delay in nesting, which was our latest season on record. Then the summer’s extreme heat and storms made recovery efforts challenging," UTRCA Species at Risk Biologist Scott Gillingwater said in a statement. "Climate change will continue to make our work more difficult, with high heat, storm events, and flooding causing turtle eggs to fail."
The Spiny Softshell Turtle is endangered in Canada with only a small number of hatchling making it to adulthood.
Along the Thames River, early studies showed almost zero eggs survived and an aging adult population. That prompted the conservation authority to begin protecting the eggs in the 1990s. Since then the Spiny Softshell Turtle population along the banks of the Thames has increased with turtles of all ages.
Without the intervention of the conservation authority there is little chance any eggs would survive, said Gillingwater. Nests tend to be crushed by human recreational activities or taken over by non-native plants, turtles are caught on fishing hooks or illegally collected for the food trade, and their habitat continues to shrink.
"Luckily, our intervention is working," said Gillingwater.
The conservation authority accepts donations to help their continued effort to support the Spiny Softshell Turtles. Anyone who would like to give can do so by clicking here.
