What To Do With A Turtle In The Road

Have you ever been driving down the road when that tire fragment in the distance begins to move? As you get closer, you realize that the tire fragment is actually a turtle, slowly attempting to cross the highway.

Turtles often make this perilous journey to get to a good, sunny location with loose soil in which to lay eggs, and to return back to familiar territory - be it a woodland, pond or desert burrow.

It is in just this situation that so many turtles lose their status as wild animals and are consigned to an unnatural, and unnaturally short, life in a back yard. By all means, help that turtle cross the road in the direction she (or he) was heading, if you can do so safely. But then leave her in the wild where she belongs.

The collection of turtles by passersby seriously contributes to the ongoing population declines in many species. Turtles and tortoises are particularly vulnerable to collecting, since they are slow-moving and generally non-aggressive.

Find out more about turtles and tortoises.