Rescued turtle in Will County Forest Preserve serves as reminder not to dump exotic pets

The Forest Preserve District of Will County is reminding people not to dump unwanted pets in the forest preserve after rescuing a rare hybrid turtle.

According to the Forest Preserve District, employees conducting a turtle survey at a preserve in Romeoville discovered “Theodore” among a group of threatened ornate box turtles and at first took him for one of the species.

Ornate box turtles are a threatened native species which the state of Illinois is working to protect and restore.

After closer inspection though, the Forest Preserve says its employees noticed that the turtle was in fact a hybrid-- half threatened ornate box turtle and half eastern box turtle.

“If he had been left in the preserve, he would have harmed the ornate box turtle population,” said Jen Guest, the facility supervisor at Isle a la Cache Museum in Romeoville.

Forest Preserve wildlife ecologist Becky Blankenship surmised that Theodore was the result of a pet Eastern box turtle being dumped in the woods when it was no longer wanted and breeding with an ornate box turtle, something that can damage the gene pool of threatened and endangered species.

Eastern box turtles are native to southern Illinois, but do not live naturally in Will County.

After his discovery, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources gave the Forest Preserve permission to remove Theodore from the preserve.

According to the Forest Preserve press release, the discovery will help protect the ornate box turtles in the preserve and Theodore himself, as he has since been adopted by the Forest Preserve District’s visitor services department.

While he may otherwise have been euthanized, Theodore is now living at the Isle a la Cache Museum as an ambassador animal alongside four endangered Blanding’s turtles.

Unlike the aquatic Blanding’s turtles though, Theodore is a terrestrial species, so he lives in a separate tank outfitted with a water bowl and places to burrow. He will soon also be getting his own large turtle pen so he can exercise outdoors. He has also been enjoying a diet of fruit – especially apples – along with mealworms, earthworms, chicken and fresh dandelion greens.

“He’s kind of a noisy eater,” Guest said, referring to his loud apple crunching.

Theodore is estimated to be about nine years old and could live 50 years or more.

Museum staff have taken to calling him Theo, Teddy or even Theodorable, but the Forest Preserve emphasizes that he’s more than just a cute addition to the facility, he’s a cautionary tale.

“He would have been euthanized if he couldn’t be re-homed,” Guest said. “We saved him from that and now his life involves helping to teach about threatened and endangered species in our county.”

Blankenship stated that an effective population of 300 ornate box turtles is needed to maintain 90% of the population’s genetic diversity over 200 years. However, since 2021, she has documented just 23 of the turtles in the wild, three of which have died.

Blankenship noted that the public can help prevent situations like this by avoiding practices that harm turtle populations. She urges people not to collect or relocate turtles, not to release pet turtles into the wild, and not to host turtle races that involve capturing wild turtles or dumping pet turtles into a preserve.

“Dumping animals in the preserve can make tough situations even worse,” Guest said. “If we keep doing that, threatened species keep getting diluted, and diluted and diluted – and that’s not helping their case. Species that are threatened could become endangered or extinct.”