About 80 turtle hatchlings incubated at the Thousand Islands National Park in Mallorytown were released Thursday with kids from a nearby nature camp enlisted to help.
“It was really fun and the turtles are really smooth on the bottom,” said one of the participants.
“We got to release them into the wild and we helped them live a little better,” said Grace, another participant.
After cameras were set up a few years ago, staff at the park noticed turtle eggs laid at the side of the road were being hit by cars or eaten by predators.
This spring, they carefully collected nearly 250 eggs and put them into an incubator.
Over the past few months, several of the turtles have hatched and were ready to be released into the wild this week.
“Projects like this that really engage the public and get them involved with protecting turtles on their own land and helping turtles in other ways is super important not only to protect turtle populations in the park but also through all of Ontario” said park ecologist Josh Van Wieren.
The initiative is part of the reptile and amphibian recovery and education (R.A.R.E) project that has a goal of protecting the turtle population while also educating the public.
Other eggs continue to hatch and will also be released.
