Turtle Taxi volunteers lend a hand to injured animals

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Slow and steady is a great way to travel if you’re a healthy turtle, but for injured turtles, where time is of the essence, hitching a ride to the Ontario Turtle Conservation Centre in Peterborough can make all the difference. 

Enter the Turtle Taxi volunteers – a network of turtle guardians across the province who help get our four-legged amphibious friends to the care they need at Ontario’s turtle hospital. As we celebrate World Turtle Day on May 23, the Turtle Taxis will be loading up and heading to the centre with patients awaiting care.

Turtles on the move

While most of the Turtle Taxis work on the ground, Wayne Harvey, of St. Thomas, loads up his personal plane with turtles to travel to and from the centre. Several times per summer, Harvey, who flies his own private plane, will meet other volunteers at various airports around southern Ontario, load up boxes, bins, and other containers with injured turtles.

“A lot of people are content to just go flying in circles. That doesn’t work for me. I need a purpose,” Harvey explains of his work with the turtles. “I’m looking for any excuse, so if I can tie this in with going for lunch in Peterborough or something like that, that’s what I’ll do.”

In addition to helping the injured turtles get to the centre, Harvey will also often return some healthy turtles to their native wetlands on his route home – and honour the friend who introduced him to the Turtle Taxi program in 2019. “I was actually at a friend’s funeral, sadly enough, and I found out in retirement, he was volunteering as a Turtle Taxi. I went to my car afterwards and googled it … so that’s when I contacted them and said, ‘Hey, I’m willing to do this if I can use my airplane.’ So, actually, every time I’ve released turtles – which has been maybe a half dozen times – I name one Larry. I don’t even know if Larry is a male or female, but I say, ‘Larry, be free, buddy.’ And off he goes.”

Steve Elford of Oshawa, who also runs the Turtles of Durham Region & Northumberland County Facebook group, is a former truck driver who started volunteering with the Turtle Taxi during the pandemic as a way to get out of the house. “I used to work in Mississauga and I lived in Port Hope. So I was a commuting every day, and it worked out that I was willing to take a turtle for the drive, whichever way it was, and kind of got me more and more into doing that, and then COVID during lockdown, you’re not allowed to go anywhere, but I had a reason to go for a drive, taking a turtle back to wherever its wetland was, so it was nice.”

Executive and medical director at the centre, Dr. Sue Carstairs, explained the Turtle Taxi program, which began in rough stages back in 2009 and evolved over the years, is a collaboration of many networks of volunteers across the province: The Turtle Taxi drivers, first responders, who are veterinarians across the province who will provide medical care and sometimes hang on to a turtle until it can catch a lift to Peterborough, and another set of volunteers who help with releasing the healthy turtles back into their home wetlands.

“The great thing about the Turtle Taxi is there’s no actual required commitment,” said Dr. Carstairs. “You can do as much or as little as you want. There’s no required set days or hours, you don’t need special training, it’s just like delivering a package.”

The Turtle Taxi volunteers are alerted via email blasts, and whoever is in the area and can assist that day can respond to the email. Sometimes, if a turtle is far away, a relay will be set up where each driver will do a set leg of the turtle’s journey. 

Elford, who is very familiar with southern Ontario’s roadways from his work, says this helps with setting up some of the relays getting turtles to and from their home wetlands. “If you’re able to bring it back from Peterborough to Ajax, and then someone else can go from Ajax to Mississauga, or Guelph, or wherever they’re going, there’s all the little parts that all helps out.” Elford also noted the Turtle Taxi can always use drivers who are free on weekdays, so the injured turtles don’t have to wait for the weekend to get to the hospital.

Harvey lauds the organizers for keeping everything running smoothly with the various handoffs. “If it’s a long distance, let’s say the turtle’s in Sudbury, and needs to get to Peterborough, that turtle might change hands three or four times — or more — before it gets there. So, it takes a crazy amount of coordination on their part. How they keep that straight is beyond me, because there’s times I’m picking turtles up and I have trouble coordinating with the three stops I’m making. I can’t imagine when there’s juggling all these people that are all over the place.”

The network of turtle helpers is vast, and both Harvey and Elford have met others from across the province in their time volunteering. On his farthest flight so far, en route to visit his daughter in Winnipeg, Harvey touched down his plane in Dryden, dropping off turtles for release to a volunteer there.

While snapping turtles make up the most common passengers (snapping turtles often walk farther on land to nesting sites, so are more prone to car strikes) other turtles the Taxi drivers might encounter are Blanding’s, and painted turtles. 

Harvey said he once had a big snapping turtle chew through the cardboard box it was being transported in and take himself for a tour of the plane. “I met the person from the center, she brought a wagon to put all the turtles on. As we’re loading up the wagon with the turtles, I go to grab the last box at the bottom, and it’s empty. The whole side of the box was torn open and the turtle got out! I looked and I looked, and the turtle was underneath the back seat. 

“It was kind of funny because the person from the center, she just said, “Oh, there he is. Can you just grab him and we’ll put him inside this bin?” He didn’t look happy. He was snapping his head off, and I said, “I’m not going near that thing!” She just goes and grabs it from behind, one one hand on either side of the tail.” 

The moral of the story, Harvey says, “I always make sure when I travel now, I always bring an extra bin with me.”

Watch for turtles

With turtle nesting season just beginning, Dr. Carstairs says the centre has already seen 300 patients come through the doors of its brand-new facility. Last year, the total number of turtles was more than 2,300, which is expected again this year. When heading out on roadways, keep an eye out for turtles, as the most common injury for turtles taken to the centre are being struck by vehicles. (Another common injury is fish hooks.)

If it is safe to do so, you can help a turtle cross the road, if it doesn’t appear to be injured. If you find a turtle that is no longer alive, Dr. Carstairs says to call the centre and they will arrange to collect it. Eggs from inside a deceased female turtle can be extracted, hatched at the centre, and returned to the mother turtle’s home wetland.

The Turtle Taxi squad is always looking for more help, and Dr. Carstairs said the best way to join is to email info@ontarioturtle.ca to get on the Turtle Taxi list. She also added that it’s not necessary to make a special trip, so those travelling to a cottage or visiting friends in the area who may have room for a turtle passenger are welcome. “It’s something anyone can do to make a difference,” she said.

The Ontario Turtle Conservation Centre’s new location is 2785 Television Rd. in Peterborough and is open 7 days a week.

lnelles@postmedia.com

Twitter: @shantora.nelles