Why turtles are crossing Oklahoma roads this spring and how to help them safely

As the weather gets warmer, you’ll start to see more turtles out and about crossing Oklahoma roads. Micah Holmes, the Communication Education Division Chief with the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation, talked to News on 6's Katie Eastman about what to do and what not to do when you have a turtle encounter.

Do you like turtles yourself?

Of course, yeah. Who doesn’t like turtles?

Around this time of year, we will start seeing more turtles out and about. Why is that?

All reptiles are cold-blooded. So, you know, they're not active during the winter. But as it starts to warm up, we start to see them more and more active. And that will continue to come up through to the really warm months. Right about now is when we can start to expect to see more turtles cross the road.

What kind of turtles will people see in Oklahoma?

Probably the three most common types of turtles are our red-ear sliders, box turtles, and snapping turtles. But there are actually lots of other kinds of turtles in Oklahoma. We're a very eco-diverse state.

When you see turtles on the road, what are they doing? Why are they trying to go somewhere?

Turtles that live in the water they're coming out to find a place to lay their eggs in most cases. We got a bunch of rain this morning, so you may see turtles on the move looking for a new creek, a new pond that doesn’t have as many turtles on it.

Other turtles, like box turtles, they’re looking for mates. They’re on the road, just looking for food. They’re more and more active this time of year.

What should somebody do if they see a turtle in the middle of the road?

Well, when it comes to any wildlife that's in the road, whether it's a deer in the road, or a turtle in the road, or a squirrel, you know, the main thing we want to do is keep human safety first. The last thing we want to do is go out of our way to not run over a squirrel or to not run over a turtle, and to get yourself an oncoming traffic to cause a wreck.

Unfortunately, you know, I don't like to say it, but sometimes the best case scenario is that you hit the turtle, you hit the deer. That's a better case scenario than going off the road, and you hitting a tree.

If someone can safely pull over, what should they do?

Obviously, look both ways, and you want to take that turtle and put it across the road in the direction that it's going. So if it's going east or west, you know, move it to the west side of the road. If you move it back to the direction it was coming from, it's going to go in that direction because that's the direction that it wants to go.

What you don’t want to do is take the turtle and move it to a totally different location. Some people may think that’s the best thing to do.

Image Provided By: Katie Eastman

I was reading that most turtles spend their lives in a very small radius. Is that why you don't move it to a new location?

Turtles are known for not moving around very fast. And they don't have great big home ranges. So if you pick up a turtle and move it, you know, even a couple of miles, that may be well beyond the range that it would ever go in its lifetime.

How long do turtles live?

I don't know exactly, but generally speaking, turtles have very long lifespans. They grow slowly, and they can easily live for decades. So there are turtles that will outlive you.

I think that was part of why I felt so awful when I accidentally killed one while driving last year. I realized I had cut this turtle’s life short by decades. Have you ever done that?

Yes, I have, unfortunately. If you spend enough time on the road, it's going to happen. It’s something we all want to avoid. But there are things we can do to make sure our yards are turtle-friendly.

Bermuda grass lawn may look perfect and may be the envy of the neighborhood, but it’s not a good place for turtles to live because turtles need lots of different kinds of plants, they need lots of different kinds of berries, flowers, and a lot of bugs.

And then they might not have to leave to cross the road?

That’s right, that’s right.

Anything you should worry about other than cars when helping a turtle cross the road?

Certainly, if you're around a snapping turtle, you know, those can be dangerous. They're called snapping turtles for a reason. You may not want to try to pick those up. You can escort them across the road, but you don’t want to touch them.

You can find more information, including Turtle Trivia, on the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation's website.