The Story of the Spiny Softshell Turtle- A Conservation Success Story
When people ask whether turtle conservation actually works, there is now a remarkable success story from Ontario that provides the answer: yes- but only if we protect turtles throughout their entire life cycle.
In the early 1990s, Ontario's endangered Spiny Softshell Turtle was disappearing from the Thames River. When surveys began in 1994, biologists found mostly older adults and very few young turtles entering the population; a warning sign that the population was in decline and could eventually disappear.
Species at Risk Biologist Scott Gillingwater and the Southern Ontario At Risk Reptiles (SOARR) program soon discovered one of the major reasons why. Between 99% and 100% of nests were being destroyed each year, primarily by predators such as raccoons, skunks, coyotes, and foxes. Even many protected nests in the wild experienced poor hatch success.
The solution wasn't simply protecting nests, nor was it only protecting adult turtles. Recovery required both.
Over the next three decades, SOARR combined adult monitoring, habitat stewardship, community education, nest protection, and eventually managed incubation. Through careful incubation and head-starting efforts, hatch success increased from approximately 17 -49% in natural nests to more than 90%. Thousands more hatchlings were able to enter the population.
The real breakthrough came in 2016, when the first females that had been protected as hatchlings returned to nest as adults. Because Spiny Softshell Turtles take approximately 12 to 15 years to reach maturity, this was the first clear evidence that the recovery work was rebuilding the population itself, not simply protecting individual turtles.
Today, researchers report finding all age classes, from hatchlings and juveniles to large breeding adults, throughout the Thames River population. What was once a population dominated by aging adults and very little recruitment is now considered a recovering population with evidence of successful reproduction and recruitment into the breeding population.
The story offers an important lesson for turtle conservation across Ontario.
Because turtles mature slowly and rely on exceptionally high adult survival, protecting nests alone is not enough. At the same time, protecting adults alone cannot reverse declines if few young survive to replace them. Recovery occurs when conservation efforts address both ends of the life cycle.
This is the same model we use at Turtle Guardians.
Despite the relative abundance of turtles remaining in the Highlands compared to other parts of the province, our long term studies are showing low recruitment levels; few age classes in most species.
Therefore, we began an advanced program. Every spring and summer, our young staff hired through programs such as Canada Summer Jobs, and trained volunteers help protect adult turtles through road patrols and emergency response, reducing one of the leading causes of mortality for breeding adults. At the same time, under provincial permits, we protect vulnerable nests through our incubation program, giving hatchlings a much greater chance of surviving those critical first months of life.
Today, Turtle Guardians operates Canada's third-largest turtle incubation program, helping to safeguard thousands of eggs each year while continuing to protect breeding adults on our roads. Together, these actions are helping to keep turtle populations in the Highlands and The Land Between in the landscape for our great grandchildern to connect to.
The lesson from the Spiny Softshell recovery is simple but powerful: saving turtles isn't about one action -it's about protecting every stage of their lives. When we keep adults alive long enough to reproduce and give hatchlings a fighting chance, turtle populations can recover. The Thames River Spiny Softshell population has shown us that with patience, science, and community stewardship, recovery is possible.
