April 2022 • Nebraskaland 19
reach sexual maturity until they are well into their teens and
up to 20 years old.
Conservation Challenges
While the Blanding's turtle may appear to be smiling,
people who love the species have reasons to frown.
Throughout most of the turtle's range in the upper Midwest
and East Coast, properties have been extensively developed
with farms, buildings and roads.
Roads serve as a primary enemy of all turtles, but
Blanding's seem especially susceptible to being smashed by
rolling rubber.
That is what fi rst brought Dr. Jeff rey Lang, a professor at
the University of North Dakota, to the Sandhills in 2002 and
2003. At that time, a lot of attention was placed on Blanding's
turtles as U.S. Highway 83 was being straightened with
a widened right-of-way right through the east side of the
Valentine National Wildlife Refuge.
Prior to coming to Nebraska, Lang had studied Blanding's
turtles at multiple localities in Minnesota, including one
population near the Mississippi River that was considered
the largest in the world. An estimated 5,000 turtles were
living there.
Upon his arrival to Nebraska, Lang immediately observed
the remains of more than 50 dead Blanding's turtles on the
blacktop of U.S. Highway 83. Given what was known about
the abundance of these turtles in Nebraska at that time, this
A Blanding's turtle crosses a road at Merritt Reservoir State Recreation Area. The low volume of vehicle traffi c in the Sandhills
has helped the species survive there better than more populated regions of the continent.
