Turtle returns to area creek after three years of rehabilitation

By Kim McDarison  

Some 25 people gathered Saturday on a 350-acre rural Milton property owned by Justin Shultz and members of his extended family. Many were employees and volunteers with the Dane County Humane Society and its Wildlife Center, and they had arrived with a purpose: to bring a turtle they had lovingly named “Blanche” home. 

Shultz has lived on the property since 2012, his mother, Susan Shearer — who was among those assembled Saturday for the turtle’s release — said. Since his arrival, he has been working to restore the property to its pre-settlement condition. 

“He’s always loved reptiles,” Shearer said of her son, noting that throughout his childhood, he kept various snakes and lizards as pets.  

“The property in Milton has been in the family since 1926,” Shearer said. It was purchased by her grandfather, she noted, adding that she moved there as a full-time resident in 2011. 

“It was a summer property while I was growing up. In 1984, my parents moved here permanently and my kids spent the summers here,” she said.  

Pointing to areas covered in native plants, Shultz said he is creating a sedge field, noting: “This is how it looked when the settlers got here.” 

There are over 100 species of sedge plants that are native to Wisconsin. Both Shultz and Dane County Humane Society Wildlife Operations Supervisor Paige Pederson, another member of the group gathered Saturday, told release participants that the habitat serves an important role in supporting native creatures, offering food and shelter. 

Part of the habitat restoration process includes controlled vegetation burns. On Shultz’s family’s property, they typically occur in May. 

In 2019, in late August, Shultz said, he was walking in his yard when he saw something unusual: it was an animal, he said, it looked barely alive. On closer inspection, he found that it was a Blanding’s turtle, a female — he could tell by the shape of her shell — and she was terribly burned and covered in mud. 

Shultz imagined she must have been caught in that year’s spring vegetation burn and had subsequently buried herself, hoping to facilitate the healing process. Now, in a dire condition, she had surfaced. 

Shultz said he brought the turtle home and placed her in a child’s pool with water, hoping to help her hydrate. He offered her some night crawlers, which, he said, she ate. 

“She wanted to live,” Shultz said. 

Not knowing where to find help, he contacted Samantha Foster, who also was among Saturday’s visitors. She directed him to the Dane County Humane Society’s Wildlife Center, Shultz said. 

Foster, a resident of Milton and University of Wisconsin-Whitewater graduate majoring in biology, said she has always loved turtles.

She has served as a members services assistant with the Wisconsin Wetlands Association since 2019. 

“I’ve done some work with Blanding’s turtles. I was involved in a research project while in college,” she said. Her work involved telemetry studies for the Blanding’s turtle and demographic surveys for various snakes and turtles.  

From there, the wildlife center took over, Shultz said. 

On Saturday, Pederson told the group that had gathered that bringing the Blanding’s turtle from Milton into the center, and the three years worth of rehabilitative care that followed, marked a number of firsts. 

She is the patient that has stayed in their care the longest, she said, noting that patients at the center typically stay between one and three months, and turtles typically stay between four and six months. 

Resulting from the extent of her injuries and her long stay, a virtual army of employees, interns and volunteers has been involved in her care. 

And then there were costs, which, she estimated at about $3,000 to $4,000. 

Further, she said, typically patients at the wildlife center don’t receive names. The idea is to leave them unnamed as a reminder that they are wild, but, she said, three years is a long time, and the volunteers could not resist. They named her “Blanche, the Blanding’s turtle.” 

There were also benefits: Dane County Humane Society Wildlife Center Wildlife Veterinarian Technician Erin Lemley told the group assembled Saturday that when Blanche arrived, the extent of her injuries was unprecedented. 

“We did not have experience with such extensive burns. So I reached out across the country and could not find anybody with experience. So, it was a wait-and-see. The day all of her dead shell fell off I almost freaked out a bit. It was very scary, but we kept going. She had been with us for a couple of months. It was November when her shell fell off,” Lemley said.  

Now that Blanche is recovered, Lemley said, there may be an opportunity to write a paper about the experience to share as a reference in future cases. 

Sharing with the group Blanche’s three-year recovery process, Pederson said when the turtle arrived, she was kept in tubs where she could be monitored and fed. 

During the winter months, she was housed inside a warm building, so she did not hibernate like she would in the wild, but having her awake and active allowed the recovery process to continue. 

Even with her injuries, Pederson said, she was “bright.” 

“She was never lethargic,” Lemley said, describing her as active, eating and eager to live. 

“She is omnivorous, so we feed a variety of things. She ate fruits, vegetables, greens, and we have a pelleted diet which we feed to ensure she is getting vitamins, and she likes crawfish and shrimp, and earthworms,” Lemley said, adding that Blanche’s size and weight increased during the course of her stay. 

She gained 500 grams while at the center, she said. Pederson estimated Blanche to weigh about 2.5 pounds and estimated her length at 10 inches. 

Answering questions posed by release participants Saturday, Pederson said she believed Blanche to be about 15 years old.  

Blanding’s turtles, which are classified as a semi-aquatic species native to central and eastern parts of Canada and the United States, are named after American naturalist Dr. William Blanding who lived between 1773 and 1857. 

While the Blanding’s turtle is not listed as endangered by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR), it is considered a “threatened” species, meaning it is a species that is likely to become endangered in the foreseeable future. 

Pederson said Blanche is of breeding age, and has the potential to live into her 50s. 

Looking more closely at funding, Pederson said typically the care of patients seen at the center might run around $100. Blanche, she said, exceeded that “significantly.” Costs included wildlife center staff time, veterinary care, food and medicine.  

Dane County Humane Society Publicity Coordinator Lisa Bernard, who also was present Saturday, noted that the  Dane County Humane Society is a nonprofit organization. While the organization’s wildlife facility is licensed through the DNR, there is no state or federal funding. 

“We rely on donations from the public,” she said, adding that Blanche’s care was a long undertaking, and her story has been highlighted by the center over the years, but, she said, “We’ve never made a specific ask for her.”  

She cited two fundraising programs that benefit the society greatly: “Toto’s Gala,” held annually in March, and “Bark and Wine,” which will be held this year on Oct. 15. 

Information about the event is here: https://www.giveshelter.org/events/bark-wine. 

She noted that the wildlife program at the Dane County Humane Society has been operating for 20 years. 

Moments before the release, Pederson said that for her, returning Blanche to the creek would be bittersweet. 

“We will miss her,” she said. 

“Her journey has touched a lot of people,” Bernard said. 

“I’m excited that she is getting released. I’m glad; I’m not sad at all,” Lemley said. 

Blanche is ready to go home, the caregivers agreed. Lemley noted that a large milestone came after a recent computerized tomography (CT) scan confirmed that Blanche had bone growing back under her new shell.  She explained that turtles require bone and utilize calcium to help them hibernate. 

While Blanche still bears significant scars from her misfortune in 2019, Pederson said: “At this point, we think she is fully fit. 

“She does not look like a normal turtle. Her top is covered in scar tissue.”

Lemley said a turtle’s shell is covered in scutes that are made of keratin, but the keratin on Blanche’s shell has not yet grown back. 

Additionally, she said, she has facial scaring, but she can close her eyes. Her beak came off and is not completely grown back. Still, she said, Blanche has proved to her caregivers that she is able to catch live food.  

“She is able to survive. She has been in as natural an environment as we can give her,” Pederson said.  

Shultz said that he usually sees turtles crossing the entryway into his family’s property in spring and fall as they move between the sedge field and the creek. 

Caregivers hoped he might one day be able to spot Blanche as she resumes a normal life. Distinct markings from her injuries might make her easy to identify, they said. 

With questions answered and Blanche’s story told, the group next moved to the shore of a creek on Shultz’s property, which, he said, did not have a name. He described the creek as a tributary of Lake Koshkonong, which, he noted, was about a half-mile away. 

Shultz and Pederson took turns holding Blanche as those gathered on the shore took photos and said their goodbyes. 

Dane County Humane Society volunteer Holly Hill-Putnam was given the honor of placing Blanche on a patch of wood chips along the shore, a task which made her visibly emotional. 

Once placed, Blanche sat for a moment, then jumped with vigor into the creek. 

As those on the shoreline watched bubbles coming to the surface, hoping to follow Blanche as she rediscovered her home, Hill-Putnam dried her eyes, and uttered a sentiment likely felt by many of the assembled caregivers: “I really love this turtle.”