Toronto, ON, Friday, March 24, 2023 – The Toronto Zoo Wildlife Conservancy is proud to partner with Ontario Power Generation (OPG) to advance its efforts under your Toronto Zoo’s Blanding’s Turtle Head-Starting and Reintroduction Program. This partnership will ensure that your Toronto Zoo and other program partners can continue to increase the number of endangered Blanding’s turtles in the wild.

The Blanding’s Turtle Head-Starting and Reintroduction Program is part of your Toronto Zoo’s Adopt-A-Pond Wetland Conservation Program, a comprehensive approach to species recovery, including habitat creation, academic research, stewardship initiatives, outreach, and education programs to save this species. The program has helped bring this threatened species back from the brink of local extirpation. 

When reintroduction efforts began in 2012, fewer than 10 individual Blanding’s turtles remained in the Rouge Valley. Since June 2014, more than 600 turtles have been released into Rouge National Urban Park to save the species, including more than 350 juveniles, who have been given a “head-start” in life through this program.

“The Zoo's conservation breeding and reintroduction programs are putting more endangered species back into the wild,” says Beth Gilhespy, Executive Director of the Toronto Zoo Wildlife Conservancy. “One challenge for these important conservation programs is that they are funded almost entirely by donations and grants. OPG’s support for the Toronto Zoo’s Blanding’s Turtle Head-Starting and Reintroduction Program means a fully funded, comprehensive program through 2023, with OPG as our partner in the fight against wildlife extinction.”

“OPG has a long history of supporting initiatives aimed at conservation and biodiversity, including at the Rouge National Urban Park,” says Heather Ferguson, Senior Vice President of Business Development & Corporate Affairs at OPG. “We are committed to protecting the environment for future generations, including helping to protect and preserve Ontario’s vulnerable wildlife populations. We are grateful to the Toronto Zoo Wildlife Conservancy for the important work that they do.”

The Blanding’s Turtle Head-Starting and Reintroduction Program reintroduces this threatened species into Rouge National Urban Park’s natural and restored wetlands. Each year, turtle eggs are collected under permit from stable source populations in Ontario. The eggs are brought under the care of your Toronto Zoo, where they are incubated, hatched, and raised for two years until they’re the size of a four or five-year-old wild turtle. 

At this stage, they have overcome the most vulnerable part of a turtle's life, with an average hatch success of over 90% and survival of 97% while in human care. In the wild, only 1% of the eggs laid will survive to reach reproductive age, with most individuals succumbing to threats in these very early years. When these Blanding's turtles are released, their shells are large enough to evade most predators such as raccoons, skunks, foxes, coyotes, and crows, giving them a head-start in life.

Your Toronto Zoo continues to collect data on these turtles post-release, tracking them throughout the year to determine their habitat preferences, behaviour, and survival rates. Your Toronto Zoo hopes to begin observing breeding behaviour in the oldest of these released turtles in the next few years, which will mark a considerable success for the program! For more information, click here.

About the Toronto Zoo Wildlife Conservancy: 

The Toronto Zoo Wildlife Conservancy is a dedicated partner with the Toronto Zoo in the fight against extinction, established in 2019 to secure increased financial resources and support for the wildlife conservation work being done by the Toronto Zoo. Extinction is forever, and the Zoo’s work in fighting extinction – through research, public engagement, education, breeding and reintroduction programs – is vital to wildlife, us, and our world. 

You can donate to the Toronto Zoo Wildlife Conservancy anytime at wildlifeconservancy.ca or 416-392-9114.

About OPG

As one of North America’s largest, most diverse electricity generators, OPG invests in local economies and employs thousands of people across Ontario and the US. OPG and its family of companies are leading the development of new clean technologies, refurbishment of existing assets, and electrification initiatives to power the growing demand of a clean economy for decades to come. Learn more about how the company is advancing these initiatives while prioritizing people, partnerships, and strong communities by reading OPG’s Climate Change Plan, Reconciliation Action Plan, and Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (ED&I) strategy.