Tracking Turtles
Over the last two years, Friends of the Chicago River has been clearing invasive species from river-edge Forest Preserves in Cook County to provide new and diversified nesting habitat for turtles. New evidence from forest preserve scientists suggests that our work is already paying off.
In 2016, Chris Anchor, senior wildlife biologist, used transmitters leftover from another wildlife project to tag turtles at two of Friends' restoration sites-one along the North Branch and one in the Calumet. Both of these sites had seen turtles nest unsuccessfully in previous years. In 2016, every turtle that he tagged nested within those two new habitat sites.
Friends is thrilled with the results and working with the Forest Preserves to clear more acres and track more turtles this year and next. Last Friday, we tagged 14 new turtles including some pretty large snappers and this cute little one. Check out the full story in the fall 2016 River Reporter and enjoy the photo spread here.
