For the Spring 2020 rewilding project, we head to the location of our new project, Slovakia, where we support our amazing partners, Broz, to restore the Danube floodplain forests. This project assists the wonderful work happening to protect Slovakia's endangered population of European pond turtles. 

Slovakia Rewilding Vote

Work gets under way to prepare for the field season.

The nesting site is surveyed for active nests and fences erected around the turtle eggs.

Adult pond turtles are tagged with GPS tags to gather important data on their movements and guide conservation decisions.

Fences covering the turtle eggs & nests are removed.

Learn more about why we are protecting European pond turtle eggs & nests

Discussions of turtle conservation more often than not bring up images of charismatic sea turtles, like the logger head and green turtle, gliding through crystal clear warm waters and bathing on soft white tropical sand. Both these species are also found in Europe, specifically the Mediterranean Sea, and are the focus of ambitious conservation projects to protect against the large number of threats they face in Europe, both on land and at sea. These include harvesting for consumption, habitat degradation, disturbance and fishing-induced mortality. Lesser known but equally deserving of our attention are Europe’s freshwater turtles. Many freshwater species, which includes terrapins and pond turtles, are under threat from the pet trade, habitat degradation, habitat fragmentation, vehicle collisions and non-native predators, yet their conservation seems less of a priority. That’s why we’ve partnered with Broz, our partners in Slovakia, to protect one such species, the little European pond turtle, and help safeguard its future in Slovakia. 

Fossil records show the European pond turtle (Emys orbicularis) has been present in Slovakia for at least 120,000 years. However, in recent years it has disappeared from much of its range. Today, there are only two known sites with a viable breeding population in Slovakia. These pond turtles live in open habitats and rely on wetlands, ponds and water channels for hunting and moving. Eggs are laid in shallow under ground nests in sandy soils with little vegetation. Depending on the weather, the hatchlings can remain at the nest site throughout winter and start emerging in spring following year. Unfortunately, the European pond turtle is losing suitable breeding habitat across much of its range as land is converted to agriculture and nests destroyed and turtles killed by agricultural disturbance.

The nesting behaviour of these pond turtles leaves them susceptible to predators as well. Our partners have access to one of the last remaining breeding populations in Slovakia, where predation is the main threat. Predator protection measures are there a vital conservation intervention to protect this important population. The project funds the training of detection dog to detect turtle eggs underground. Since nests are practically invisible to the human eye, the detection dog will accompany the field team to the breeding site to survey for active nests. Fences are erected over active nests to protect the eggs and hatchlings from predators, thereby helping to improve the reproductive success of one of Slovakia’s last remaining breeding populations of European pond turtle.

To support the conservation of the turtles more widely, the team are tagging turtles with GPS trackers to enable them to monitoring their movement patterns in the long term. This will provide crucial data to enable the team to identify important areas of habitat for protection and restoration, including any unknown breeding sites.

Hannah Kirkland, 
Conservation Biologist at Mossy Earth

Tomáš Kušík, 
European pond Turtle Project Manager and Chairman at Broz.

To contribute to the conservation of Slovakia's European Pond Turtle we are supporting surveying and protection of active nests and turtle eggs.

Protecting Turtle Nests & Eggs

Conserving Slovakia's European pond turtle

We are helping to protect breeding European pond turtles in Slovakia by surveying a known breeding site and protecting active nests. To compliment the breeding site surveys, we are also GPS tagging turtles to monitor their movements across the landscape. This will enable us to collect data on the behaviour and movement patterns of the adult turtles in order to design the most effective conservation measures.

Adult turtles are thought to disperse over a wide area and by tagging them with GPS trackers, we will be able to collect fine-scale movement pattern data over a period of around 2 year. This will enable the team to identify important areas of habitat for protection and restoration, including new potential breeding and wintering sites. 

To support the survival of the wild population of European pond turtle in Slovakia, the team has also been on a rescue mission. Team members living in the local area, Velky Lel island, have been working alongside community members to rescue turtles taken from the wild and kept illegally. Thanks to the teams respectful and diplomatic approach, they have been able to rescue a total of four turtles, including the two that received GPS tags, and return them to the wild. These turtles would otherwise have been lost to the already depleted breeding population of Slovakia's pond turtle. 

In partnership with Broz we are working to protect breeding European pond turtles in Slovakia. To compliment the breeding site surveys, the team is GPS tagging turtles to monitor their movements across the landscape. 

Turtle tagging - August 2020

Tagging European pond turtles for long-term monitoring

Turtle Tagging - August 2020

GPS backpacks

Return to the wild