Driving through Embden the other morning, I passed several snapping turtles laying eggs along the sandy stretch of the road. Their shells were covered in mud and to their advantage, they looked like large rocks strewn along the roadside. Further up the road, I pulled over to help a medium-sized snapping turtle cross a busy trucking route. A trucker coming from the other direction had stopped oncoming traffic and leaned out his cab to tell me he’d been seeing a lot of turtles on the road lately. This one was lucky.
We have seven species of turtles in Maine. Some, like Blanding’s and spotted turtles are only found in the southern part of the state where traffic density is highest. Road mortality is a significant threat to both Blanding’s and spotted turtles, which are protected under Maine’s Endangered Species Act. The most common turtle species seen crossing the road are painted and snapping turtles. Both species range throughout the eastern U.S and take 10 years or more to reach breeding age. Although they are common, they also face high levels of road mortality.
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