Across its range, the Blanding’s Turtle inhabits a myriad of wetland types, from prairie potholes in the central plains to quiet coves of the Great Lakes to small shrub swamps and cranberry bogs in New England. The species is adept at overland travel and will utilize various wetland types and their surrounding terrestrial habitats over the course of the year. Due to their extensive use of both aquatic and terrestrial environments, the Blanding’s Turtle requires sizeable contiguous or interconnected tracts of land to thrive. Because the majority of these environments have been highly fragmented, altered, or altogether destroyed, populations of the species are often now relatively small and localized, though some areas of abundance still occur.

In addition to habitat destruction, alteration, and fragmentation, the Blanding’s Turtle faces numerous other threats that lead to population decline. Road and railroad mortality is a persistent threat not only to females searching for nesting sites but also to males and other age classes of turtles who move between habitats. Increased levels of predators also pose a threat to adults, juveniles, and eggs, and illegal poaching removes adult turtles that are critical to population stability. In the early to mid-1900s, in the Great Lakes Region in particular, the Blanding’s Turtle was heavily harvested for commercial food markets.

The Blanding’s Turtle is now regarded by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List as Endangered, and is protected in every United States state and Canadian province in which it naturally occurs, ranging in conservation status from a Species of Special Concern to Endangered.

To help Blanding’s Turtles, please never take one from the wild, pay careful attention to the road while driving in their range, especially during the summer, do not purchase illegally collected turtles, use best land management practices for wildlife, and report any sightings to your state or provincial herpetologist or wildlife resources department.

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The natural history of the wood turtle is one of a Jekyll and Hyde-like utilization of the landscape. For much of the year they are a turtle obligated to an aquatic lifestyle where they breed and brumate (reptilian hibernation). During the other, they are a turtle who moves between terrestrial habitats, sometimes many kilometers per year. During summer heat spells or drought, the North American Wood Turtle often returns to the water and its immediate surroundings.

Once an abundant turtle, habitat fragmentation, alteration, and destruction, road and railroad mortality, increased predator populations, collection for the pet trade, and climate change, among other threats, have severely depleted, if not altogether extirpated, populations. Due to this, the North American Wood Turtle is regarded by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List as Endangered, and is now protected in every United States state and Canadian province in which they naturally occur, ranging in conservation status from a Species of Special Concern to Endangered. To help wood turtles, please never take one from the wild, do not purchase illegally collected turtles, use best land management practices for wildlife, and report any sightings to your state or provincial herpetologist or wildlife resources department.

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