Why does a turtle cross the road....

18 years ago

Hello everyone,

On a few different occaisons I have found turtles, everything from Painted to Snappers attempting to cross highways south of where I live here in Ontario and I stop and take the turtle in the direction it is headed which is of course the other side of the road.

Are the turtles travelling to find mates? Are they simple expanding teritory or is it possible the ashphalt is just a great basking spot?

Any ideas or opinions?

Thanks!

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Comments (7)

bill_rudden
18 years ago
Don't forget to consider egg laying this time of year.
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herpfriend
18 years ago
All of the above are possible reasons to cross the road.
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DaveOdd
18 years ago
To get to the other side. DUH!
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designer62
18 years ago
yup.....rescued 3 wood turtles here in one day on the same road!! I think there is something instinctual about it.
They leave one obviously great marsh or woods for another obviously great marsh or woods on the other side of the road....
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wduzak
18 years ago
I often ask the same question but I suddenly realized there is some kind of species prejustice working here. We would never ask why a fox, coyote, turkey or possum crosses the road.
I think just because it is so difficult for turtles to travel speedily (although some can move quite well when they want to )that we wonder why they bother.
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marylandmojo
18 years ago
pmchechn: Basically, to get from point A to point B in the speediest manner--a straight line (and for all the reaons you mentioned). Roads also disect certuries old (sometimes, as in the turtles' case millions of years old) travel routes, from bogs to nesting grounds). Hard to break old habits--and their only choice is to CROSS the road--can't go around a road that stretches 50 miles, or more. All wild life-forms suffer the dilemma--even ones that don't move so slowly. I was traveling from Northern California to Wyoming a few years back, to photograph Elk. The West to East highway I was traveling (whose designation escapes me now) runs through (slightly around) Salt Lake City, Utah. As I passed through, going out the West side, there were dead deer on the road, in DROVES--maybe 50, or so. I asked at a service station what that was about, and the guy said they built the highway right through a deer crossing, or migration, route. Sure enough, when our party came back West (we were traveling in two vehicles), the other vehicle hit and killed a deer, and again I saw 40 or 50 dead deer on the sides of the road. Unreal.
wduzak: I doubt it's species prejudice. Years ago the question was, "Why did the chicken cross the road?", 'cause everyone in the country had chickens, and they were always pecking gravel on the roadsides (and getting killed). Guess that question's moot anymore--few have a family flock of chickens, any more. Used to be daily fresh eggs--on the hoof (tee-hee).
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Arbee
18 years ago
I'll say basically the same thing marylandmojo said, just a little differently. They cross the road because the road cuts right through their habitat. If a road is built right through a turtle's habitat, sooner or later, that turtle is going to cross the road when it is searching for food or looking for a suitable place to nest. That fragments their habitat.
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Why does a turtle cross the road....

Comments (7)

bill_rudden

herpfriend

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