April 2022 • Nebraskaland 21
much road mortality seemed incredible.
Lang and other researchers later learned a lot more
Blanding's turtles were in the Sandhills, and the highway
mortality, while certainly undesirable, was not as much
of a threat to the population as they originally suspected.
By trapping turtles, marking them and tracking them with
telemetry equipment, they later estimated just the refuge
population at more than 130,000 turtles — about 26 times
that of the one in Minnesota.
"The Sandhills total population is likely well over several
hundred thousand," Lang said.
But despite their abundance, this is a diffi cult turtle to
study.
"They're kind of shy," Lang said. "They also live in habitat
which is really hard to make observations on. They don't sit
out and bask as readily as painted turtles."
Similar to other hard-shelled relatives, Blanding's turtles
move between habitats depending on the season.
In May and June, the females travel as much as 1 mile
away from the marsh to each lay about a dozen eggs, and
that is when they are most vulnerable to becoming roadkill.
Thankfully, Sandhills roads are some of the most lightly
traveled in America.
"The magic here is that the turtles are basically surrounded
Dr. Jeff rey Lang and volunteer Alan Bartels check a turtle trap on the Valentine National Wildlife Refuge.
The holes in the shell of this turtle indicate that it was
captured and marked when Lang visited the refuge two
decades ago.
