Why Turtles are Important

Thank you to Meadow Funkenhauser for guest authoring this month’s blog post

Northern map and midland painted turtles on a log in a marshy area

You may be familiar with the notion of the world, or specifically North America being referred to as Turtle Island. Some Indigenous Peoples tell of the world’s creation occurring on the shell of a turtle, with the story being that in order to purify the world of conflict, flooding began and a turtle allowed for a piece of Earth to be placed on him so as to give his surviving friends a place to live in the flooded conditions (Robinson, 2018). The piece of Earth grew and grew until an island popped up with the Turtle holding the weight of the world on its back, and this is how Turtle Island came to be (Robinson, 2018). Turtles have long been viewed as having significance to our planet and country and here are some reasons why you should still care about them today.

Turtles are pretty cool creatures, with ecological adaptations unique to them. An animal capable of surviving the extinction of the dinosaurs certainly is deserving of some recognition, and consideration in protection and conservation efforts in the present day. If this isn’t enough of a reason for you to think they’re important, they also have a significant impact on their ecosystems, and other species.

The ecosystems in which turtles inhabit in Ontario are primarily wetlands. These areas have the potential to prevent erosion, and filter out poor quality water, effects which benefit us humans directly (OTCC, 2022). Turtle populations have significant biomass within these wetlands, especially as compared to the diverse variety of other species, meaning they represent high amounts of stored energy sources (Lovich et al., 2018). The implication of these high biomass levels is that turtle populations have a significant influence on the various ecological processes in wetland and terrestrial environments (Lovich et al., 2018). Population decline could pose serious disruptions to the biodiversity levels, which will have consequences along the food chain, whether in predator, prey species or plant species (Lovich et al., 2018).

Eastern musk turtle basking (unusual as they are rarely found out of the water). Photo from the Canadian Wildlife Federation.

In a world full of concerns over biodiversity loss, and ecosystem degradation, turtle conservation is more important than ever. The ramifications of further endangerment and/or extinction of these species would greatly affect Canada’s ability to meet our biodiversity targets and would contribute to a decline in the abilities of wetlands to serve as the life-sustaining landscape they act as for both humans and their animal inhabitants.

Written by Meadow Funkenhauser

References:

Lovich, J. E., Ennen, J. R., Agha, M., & Gibbons, J. W. (2018). Where Have All the Turtles Gone, and Why Does It Matter? Bioscience, 68(10), 771–781. https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biy095

Our story & mission. Ontario Turtle Conservation Centre. (2022, March 29). https://ontarioturtle.ca/ourmission/#:~:text=Turtles%20are%20major%20biodiversity%20compon ents,century%2C%20due%20to%20human%20development.

Robinson, A. (2018, November 6). Turtle Island. The Canadian Encyclopedia. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/turtle-island