TOLEDO, Ohio (WTVG) – More than a dozen baby snapping turtles were found during routine garden work at a local hospice facility. And people at Hospice of Northwest Ohio are welcoming them to stay.
Snapping turtles will leave water to lay and bury their eggs and two to five months later, baby snapping turtles will appear to make their way to water.
Just as more than a dozen hatchlings tried to do at the Edward and Marion Knight Hospice Center, before getting a little bit of help.
“The snapping turtle was a first; we have a lot of wildlife here, though,” Kimberly Ledesma, the director of facilities and administrative support, said.
They are no stranger to wildlife, from birds to deer to frogs, but the recent discovery caught them by surprise.
“We had discovered some snapping turtles being born on our facility by one of our ponds,” Ledesma said.
It was 19 hatchlings in all.
“The baby snapping turtles, they could fit in the palm of my hand,” Ledesma said.
They were found in a garden bed near a feature fountain.
“Upon discovery, our gardener reached out to me, because she was watering our plants and she called for me to help her with it because they were getting to an unsafe water source, our fountain here has chemical treatment,” Ledesma said.
After putting on some gloves and grabbing a bucket, the team relocated the 19 hatchlings to a safer body of water on their property.
“As soon as we tilted the bucket and they saw the water, they honestly just dive right in, so they were very excited to have their new space,” Ledesma
Dr. Matt Cross is the Director of Vertebrate Conservation at the Toledo Zoo.
“Snapping turtles are probably our more common species of turtles,” Dr. Cross said.
Cross added, there are likely many living here in Northwest Ohio in different bodies of water.
“Snapping turtles, they’re big, and they just have this prehistoric look to them that’s really just kind of cool to be able to see like a living dinosaur on the landscape,” he said.
Dr. Cross said if you find yourself in a similar situation, the best thing is to let the turtles be if they’re not in a dangerous situation.
“If you can escort them to the wetland and you’re comfortable doing so, that’s a you know a huge step in that turtle’s life and just even making it to the place where they’re nice and secure,” Cross said.
The turtles now have a welcome home at Hospice of Northwest Ohio.
“We always try to do the best that we can to protect the wildlife on our property, it’s just something that we like to make sure that patients and staff can enjoy while here,” Ledesma said.
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This article was published by WTVG on 2025-09-11 23:24:00
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