Turtle Monitoring During Covid-19

Here’s an update from Hope Brock of the Ausable Bayfield Conservation Authority

Hello Turtle Watchers!   

​Although we humans are not going about our usual business, we can take comfort in knowing that the natural world around us continues on as usual.  This includes the emergence of turtles from hibernation.  Our current plan is to continue with the Turtle Monitoring Program with several modifications so that everyone stays safe and continues to respect physical distancing.  

Turtle Monitoring – Please respect all local isolation orders in place during the Covid-19 pandemic.  We are not encouraging anyone to go out specifically looking for turtles.  However, we are requesting that you contact us with any sightings you make while you are in your yard, outside for a walk, or during your essential travels.

       Please see the attached monitoring form which indicates the information we are looking for – e.g., species, location, behaviour.  It’s important to be as specific as possible with your location description (landmarks, 911 numbers are helpful) as we use your descriptions to capture these points using our internal mapping program.  We very much appreciate your continued efforts with this community monitoring program, and we always look forward to your reports and photos.  

In previous years, some of you were using the Reptile and Amphibian Atlas app to record observations.  This app is no longer available, so we suggest using iNaturalist if you would like to record your observations in this way.  If you would like to use this app, please continue to send us your sightings as well.  We don’t automatically receive the data collected through this app, so unless you tell us, we won’t know what you have seen.  For more information, please visit  

https://www.inaturalist.org/