Photo: Gabrielle Cepella | Unsplash
Starting last year, a handful of volunteers and scientists began a yearly ritual of collecting turtle eggs on Petrie Island, a conservation area off the shore of Orléans, a suburban neighborhood in east Ottawa, Canada. The area is home to several at-risk species that might otherwise get gobbled up by predators due in part to increased urbanization. The turtle guardians lovingly watch over the hatchlings in a lab, finally releasing the tiny vulnerable creatures back onto the island a couple months later. The hope — a huge gamble, really — is that some will make it into the one per cent of area turtles that reach adulthood, therefore helping the population thrive. Petrie Island is home to 5 different species of turtles.
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