NEBRASKAland Magazine is dedicated to outstanding photography and informative writing with an engaging mix of articles and photos highlighting Nebraska’s outdoor activities, parklands, wildlife, history and people.
Issue link: http://mag.outdoornebraska.gov/i/1463221
18 Nebraskaland • April 2022 Turtles at Home in Nebraska Story and photos by Justin Haag rass-covered sand dunes accented by wetland marshes and lakes as far as the eye can see. Humans and vehicle traffi c sparse. Vibrant community of turtles and other wildlife. If real estate advertisements targeted wildlife, such words would catch the eye of at least one species. Thanks to research at the Valentine National Wildlife Refuge, we know many Blanding's turtles (Emydoidea blandingii) are already living the good life in the Nebraska Sandhills — so much so that the region is increasingly becoming known as Blanding's turtle capital of the world. Meet the Blanding's Turtle Ask a naturalist to describe the Blanding's turtle, and chances are you will be told it appears to be smiling. Its dark head with highly contrasting yellow chin makes it look that way, and serves as its most signifi cant identifi er. Its high-domed dark shell is usually accented with dots and short streaks of yellow. The plastron, the bottom portion of the shell, is hinged like that of a box turtle but does not close as tightly. The turtle is mostly carnivorous, eating creatures such as snails, insects, tadpoles, crawdads and frogs. It was named for the fi rst person believed to have described it, Dr. William Blanding, an East Coast physician and naturalist who lived 1773-1857. A semi-aquatic species that loves marshy areas, the turtle's historical range is centered in Michigan and includes portions of states and provinces that border the Great Lakes. The range also extends into parts of the East Coast, Missouri and, of course, Nebraska. It is a sizable range, but the turtle's distribution is spotty. Most populations are small, numbering in the tens, rather than hundreds. Nebraska is the only state in which the species is "apparently secure," a favorable ranking on NatureServe, the national nonprofi t that combines species data from state and federal sources. In all other states and provinces, rankings range from "vulnerable" to "critically imperiled." The Blanding's turtle is listed as a "tier 1" species in the Natural Legacy Project, Nebraska's wildlife action plan. That makes it Nebraska's only turtle species designated to have the greatest need of conservation. The species is doing well in the Sandhills, but likely has suff ered in other parts of the state. While populations of many wildlife species may fl uctuate upwards in just a few years, Blanding's turtles are true to stereotype in this regard: slow. They can live to be more than 70 years old, but do not G The Sandhills region is tops for Blanding's turtle habitat and numbers