Before graduating and being released into the wild, Woodland Park Zoo’s 2024-born Western pond turtles have one final goal: to grow big and healthy enough to escape the jaws of invasive bullfrogs. On Thursday, about 40 turtles were weighed and measured for a head start on hatching from eggs and becoming turtles. If they’re big enough, the hatchlings will be released into protected wetlands around the state next month.
As part of the Western Pond Turtle Recovery Project, zoo visitors of all ages can watch as the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife and Woodland Park Zoo prepare the turtle for the next chapter in its life. The turtle will live in protected wetlands, basking in vegetation, sunbathing on logs, swimming between mud banks and eating insects, amphibians and aquatic plants.
Each summer, biologists collect turtle eggs from nests in the wild and bring them to the zoo, where they are incubated for two to three months. Under the care of the zoo’s animal caretakers, the turtles are kept safe from predators and fed nutritious food all winter long.
By the end of summer, they weigh at least 2 ounces, too big to fit into a bullfrog’s mouth and larger than a wild turtle of that age. Each August, the young turtles are released back into local protected wetlands and monitored by WDFW biologists.
