03-07-2025
New app helps Minnesotans track turtles, keep them safe while crossing roads
Minnesota summers means turtles are on the move, and a new app helps them cross roads safely.
"I moved into a house at the intersection of twp ponds and I noticed turtles crossing frequently and also frequently getting hit by cars," said Kelly Olson.
The reptile loves connected wetlands and moving in between them. Road mortality is one of the biggest threats for turtles in Minnesota, according to Wildlife Conservation Specialist Tricia Markle with the Minnesota Zoo.
The problem is that roads often split bodies of water.
"They do sense danger, they'll often kind of tuck back into their shell, they'll kind of react to traffic, they'll react to noise and vibration," said Markle.
But if food, a potential mate or a nesting site is on the other side of that road — turtles will take the risk.
"Turtles will just kind of go for it because they kind of rely on their shell to protect them but unfortunatley with a vehicle, that's not going to do the job," said Markle.
A study of 30 sites around the metro found that 700 turtles died while crossing roads in one year.
"If we scale that up across the state in our land of 10,000 lakes, we're probably looking at thousands, if not tens of thousands of turtles that are hit and killed on our roads every single year," said Markle.
Olson had seen enough outside her home - so she teamed up with her sister on a solution: an app called TurtlTracker.
Using GPS, the app notifies users of turtle hotspots, meaning areas where road crossings and mortalities are prevalent.
But most importantly, users track turtles and learn how to safely intervene when one is on a road.
Moving the animal to safety can be a fun and quick fix. But the longterm solution to reducing road mortality is in the data collection on the app. By identifying new turtle hotspots and crossings, conservation groups can learn where to put fences to block roads and build turtle tunnels underneath for safe passage.
