On Oct. 23, Calvin University welcomed 11 baby spotted turtles from John Ball Zoo as a part of a program aimed to strengthen the spotted turtle population in Michigan.
Spotted turtles are considered threatened in Michigan and protected under state law, according to the Michigan Natural Features Inventory. They are named for their spotted shells and are typically found around clean, shallow bodies of water surrounded by aquatic or emergent vegetation.
The program “is the latest addition to John Ball Zoo’s Great Lakes Rare Turtle Program, led by Bill Flanagan, the Zoo’s conservation manager,” according to the press release shared by Calvin’s Marketing and Communications department, and is the first of these programs to focus on spotted turtles, according to William Miller, associate professor of biology and the head of the turtle project…