Wildlife experts say to watch out for turtles this time of year

JACKSON, Tenn. — Late May through June is an active season for turtles.

“People see turtles come walking across their yards or walking across roads this time of year,” said Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency Regional Administrator Alan Peterson. “Most of them are females looking for a piece of dry ground to lay their eggs.”

Peterson says that no one should interfere with them ever.

“If you leave them alone they’ll dig a hole lay the eggs and then they’ll go back to the water,”  said Peterson. “So leave the turtles alone. Don’t pick them up don’t take them home as pets or anything like that.”

In Tennessee, its illegal to keep a turtle in captivity. Peterson says even those that were originally pets can’t be released into the wild.

“The turtles that are allowed in the pet trade are species that are not native to Tennessee,” said Peterson. “You don’t want to release them here. One, because they’re not native you don’t want to start a population of some exotic species. And second, they’re probably not going to survive anyway.”

Peterson says most native turtles in the area are aquatic.

“We have one terrestrial not good swimmer turtle species in Tennessee that’s the box turtle,” said Peterson. “It has a real high dome shell most of the other turtles. Or all the other turtles we have in Tennessee are at least semi-aquatic.”

Many times when they are on the roads, people might stop to move them or avoid hitting them but he suggests to just let them be.

“It’s not a good idea to stop especially when there’s traffic and move a turtle,” said Peterson. “Just leave it alone. It’ll walk across.”

Peterson says tortoises are sometimes confused as turtles but should not be placed in water ever since they can not swim. Instead he says just avoid trying to handle them in general.