Nature

The Elusive Search for the Stinkpot Turtle

Imagine slowly paddling your canoe on a cool summer evening. All around you, nature is teeming with life. Beavers, bats and fish are going about their business. Suddenly, the light from your flashlight catches a furtive shadow in the water below you: a small, round silhouette is slowly swimming away through the dead vegetation. You grab your dip net and gently scoop up the little creature, which gives off a faint skunk-like smell as it struggles to escape. There’s no doubt about it - it’s a stinkpot turtle, one of the rarest animals in Canada!

This is just what happened to a team of biologists working together in the summer of 2007 on the Ottawa River, about 100 km upstream of Gatineau, Quebec.

Biologists from Environment Canada’s Canadian Wildlife Service, the Quebec Department of Natural Resources and Wildlife, and the Nature Conservancy Canada found six stinkpot turtles in a section of the river where this species was not previously known to occur. The biologists are quite familiar with another section of the river, at Bristol Mines, where about 100 stinkpot turtles are well established. However, this area is too far from the latest discovery location for these to be the same turtles.

This is an important discovery that could help conservation efforts for this threatened species, which is protected under the federal government’s Species at Risk Act. It is critical to find out how many stinkpots live in the Ottawa River, where they are located and the nature of the threats they face.

At present, very little is known about the stinkpot. It is hard to spot since the stinkpot is mainly nocturnal and spends most of its time burrowed in the mud. In Canada, in addition to the Ottawa River in Quebec, these turtles can also be found in Georgian Bay, in the Thousand Islands area of the St. Lawrence River and in southeastern Ontario.

The stinkpot is the smallest of eight species of freshwater turtles that live in Canada. Adults reach no larger than about 15 cm, or slightly smaller than the length of your hand. They feed on various invertebrates, such as snails, insects and even the leeches that fasten on to the turtles as parasites. They pull off the leeches by stretching their long necks back to their hind legs.

Unlike other turtles that may spend time on land, the stinkpot essentially lives in water. In summer, it prefers shallow water near shores, hiding among aquatic plants. In June, it lays its eggs on exposed areas close to the water’s edge, such as riverbanks and beaver lodges, so that it can return quickly to the water. In the fall, stinkpots in the Ottawa River have been observed migrating to deeper waters to breed and spend the winter. In winter, the stinkpot usually hibernates in bottom mud, in well-oxygenated areas. It spends its entire life within a radius of less than 1 km from its hibernation site.

Since it faithfully returns to the same areas year after year, and since it is unable to travel great distances, the stinkpot is especially vulnerable to changes in its habitat. The construction of a dam, for example, can create an impassable barrier, preventing it from moving between its feeding and hibernating areas. Imagine a four-lane highway that suddenly separates your dining room from your bedroom, forcing you to choose permanently between eating and sleeping. It would be difficult to survive in these conditions! Rising water levels can also drown stinkpot eggs, impairing the stinkpot’s ability to reproduce.

To protect the stinkpot turtle, we need to learn more about it. Environment Canada is funding several research projects on this species. In the Ottawa River, the Nature Conservancy of Canada is carrying out inventories of stinkpots under the Habitat Stewardship Program for Species at Risk. At the Canadian Armed Forces base in Petawawa, with funding from the Interdepartmental Recovery Fund for species at risk, stinkpots are being inventoried and fitted with tracking devices on their shells to help us to learn more about their movements and preferred habitats. In Temiscaming, in southwestern Quebec, the Algonquin community of Kipawa-Eagle Village will be conducting a stinkpot inventory in 2008, funded by Environment Canada’s Aboriginal Species at Risk Program.

You can also do your part if you live or vacation near water. Resist the temptation to “clean up the shoreline” and instead leave some logs along the banks and in the water. You might be lucky enough to see a turtle hiding or resting there. Since racoons eat turtle eggs, take steps to keep the racoon population under control, such as putting your garbage in racoon-proof garbage cans. Don’t catch wild turtles for pets; instead, go to a pet shop that complies with the regulations governing trade in wild species. Don’t release a pet turtle into the wild; it could transmit diseases to wild turtles and threaten the fragile balance of nature. Instead, contact your local Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA). Also, report any wild turtles you see to your provincial Department of Natural Resources. These simple steps allow you to help protect these fascinating creatures.

Related Links

• Stinkpot Turtle
• Quebec Department of Natural Resources and Wildlife (MRNF)(French only)
• Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources:
• Nature Conservancy of Canada
• Habitat Stewardship Program for Species at Risk
• Interdepartmental Recovery Fund
• Canadian Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Network