Ontario is home to eight different species of turtle. Seven turtle species have been designated as Species at Risk. Three species of turtle (in bold) are found in the Jack Lake watershed.
Status of Ontario turtles
Blandings Turtle (Emydoidea blandingii)
Threatened
Eastern Box Turtle (Terrapene carolina)
Extirpated
Midland Painted Turtle (Chrysemys picta)
No Status
Northern Map Turtle (Graptemys geographica)
Special Concern
Snapping Turtle (Chelydra serpentina)
Special Concern
Spiny Softshell (Apalone spinifera spinifera)
Threatened
Spotted Turtle (Clemmys guttata)
Endangered
Wood Turtle (Glyptemys insculpta)
Endangered
On a provincial basis, turtle observations are stored in the Ontario Herpetofaunal Survey database (Crowley undated). Prior to 2014 there were records of 4 Blandings turtles, 8 snapping turtles and 10 midland painted turtles in that database. Members of the Jack lake Association have sporadically contributed to this database over the years but a concerted effort was initiated in 2014 to solicit volunteers from around the lake to report turtle observations. Over the past three years (2014-2016) JLA volunteers have made a substantial contribution (recorded observations of 155 individual turtles) to the knowledge of the distribution and general status of turtles in the Jack Lake watershed. Individual observations, combined with data from the Ontario Herpetofaunal Survey, have been summarized by Kerr (2016).
Turtle Observations from the Jack Lake area (Square 17QK35). Data was derived from the Ontario Herpetofaunal Survey supplemented by observations from volunteers of the Jack Lake Association.
2014: 2 Blandings, 32 Painted, 12 Snapping
2015: 3 Blandings, 58 Painted, 20 Snapping
2016: 5 Blanding, 14 Painted, 16 Snapping
Submitted by Steve Kerr, Jack Lake
Painted Turtle laying eggs – Rick Stankiewicz
Snapping Turtle – Rick Stankiewicz
Blanding’s Turtle – Rick Stankiewicz
