[For Sale] NA Wood Turtle Conservation Group

Greetings Wood Turtle enthusiasts. After more than 30 years of working with Glyptemys insculpta, and recently surviving both Covid and Cancer, I have decided I want to organize a group of Wood Turtle conservationist captive breeders whose motives, like mine, are to reduce the strain on native wild populations by greatly reducing the financial incentive that drives illegal poaching of dwindling wild populations.

To that end, I am prepared to begin offering my annual hatchlings, and potentially someday my juveniles and breeding stock, to mature individuals who: (a) reside in states where it is legal to possess, (b) can demonstrate to me that they have the resources, experience, and commitment to captive breeding and conservation, and (c) are not motivated by any notion of making financial gains by selling wood turtles.

Beginning with my pending hatchling class of 2021, those qualified will be able to acquire multiple hatchlings from me every year at around $40-$50 each, which I figure roughly covers my annual cost of maintaining my own group in CA. I will not sell any turtles to individuals who would expect to flip them (sorry, bad turtle pun) for a profit . My hope is to, over the next 10-15 years, create an interactive group with enough critical mass to help captive breeding eventually prevail in increasing the supply and reducing the price of legal CB Wood Turtles, and to make illegal wild caught turtles much less valuable.

If you believe that you would be a good and faithful member of this group, and would welcome this opportunity, please email me (and state your qualifications) at glyptemys64@gmail.com. Thanks Scott

What an Amazing thing you are doing! Congratulations on your survival of two such deadly conditions! Too many have not been as fortunate! I have been keeping tortoises and turtles for 30+ years! They are definitely a passion for me as well! I salute you for having the wherewithal to aid in the future conservation of these Awesome species! They truly are a unique and very intelligent turtle. I would like to work with them again at some point! Keep on doing what you do.

Jeff Port

Fantastic idea! Good on you for doing this!


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Great idea!
In a year or two, I might be able to set up to join your group. I have some family obligations on my plate right now.
I’m in southern CT; haven’t seen a wild one in years, sad to say. A widespread breeding group could help reduce collecting pressure.
No worries about flipping; I’ve been adopting herps for many years, never sold any.
Cheers!


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Wow, thanks to those of you who have already responded favorably to my post. I am greatly encouraged that others feel the way I do about these amazing turtles. For those of you who have emailed, I will respond within a few days once I have a better sense of the numbers of those who are interested. My hope is that I'll wind up with around 10 people participating in this year's expected supply of hatchlings (presently have around 60 viable eggs incubating with hatch due in late July). Again, thanks for the positive response.

As a current resident of Minnesota, a state with 2 rapidly declining populations of wood turtles, I wish I could be apart of this group and project! I have looked into getting the proper DNR permit to raise and breed woods for the very same reasons you are offering in this opportunity!

Unfortunately the MN DNR and zoos seem less than willing to lift restrictions and allow the private sector (with plenty of time, money, and resources) to help woods and so many other chelonians in dire need of help! If anything, it's just getting more difficult for people to keep and breed turtles. I also read that wood turtles are up for national endangered species status soon so I'm not sure what that means in terms of who is allowed to keep them if that happens moving into the future.

I am planning to move to Florida sometime soon which allows the housing of woods so maybe I have to wait, but in the mean time if there is anything I can do to help or can do to aid in this campaign let me know!

I think it's amazing what you are doing and really appreciate what you are doing for conservation and turtles!

-Brian

I sent an email explaining why, but I wanted to let you know here too of my interest. Thanks again for the opportunity for us to be able to contribute in such a drastic way to aid in turtle conservation for a very underappreciated species. If you have any questions shoot me a message. Thank you.

Thanks again to all who have responded with such enthusiasm. I am planning on sending responses to those who emailed me in the coming week. For any folks who missed this as an original post, I'm still happy to hear from you. Scott

Being in Michigan I can't participate, but this is very cool to see. Growing up I used to see Wood turtles basking next to Map turtles along the river on canoe trips every year, now in the last 10 years I've seen them only 2x along that same river (fewer Maps as well).

I wish this group the best of luck. Scott, have you spoke with Chris Leoni at Garden State at all? He does work with these, he may know some people for you to work with as well.

The wood turtle takes a long time to reach sexual maturity, has a low fecundity (ability to reproduce), but has a high adult survival rate. However, the high survival rates are not true of juveniles or hatchlings. Although males establish hierarchies, they are not territorial