Red-Bellied Cooter To Headline MA Endangered Species Day

WESTBOROUGH, MA — Scores of turtles will converge on Westborough on Wednesday.

Why? To celebrate the 40th year of one of the longest-running conservation efforts in the U.S. to reinvigorate the endangered red-bellied cooter species.

Starting in 1984, the state Division of Fisheries and Wildlife embarked on an effort to increase the cooter population from a low of 300. Part of that effort involved a “head start” program where schools, museums and research groups helped raise the turtles in captivity for their eventual release.

Many of those conservation partners will head to the MassWildlife headquarters in Westborough on Wednesday to deliver their red-bellied cooters. The state expects to tag the 5,000th turtle raised in the head start program. The celebration will also mark Endangered Species Day, which will officially be observed Friday.

“Over the past forty years, MassWildlife has ‘headstarted’ over 5,000 turtles. As a result, the estimated population of northern red-bellied cooters in Massachusetts has grown from just 300 in the 1980s to over 2,000 adults today,” the agency said in a news release.

Massachusetts has the only population of red-bellied cooters in New England, with the next closest group in New Jersey. The turtles, which can live up to 50 years, and are still listed as endangered by state and federal governments.

Wednesday’s event will feature remarks by federal and state conservation officials, the Massachusetts state herpetologist Mike Jones and participants in the head start program. The event begins at 10 a.m. Wednesday at the MassWildlife headquarters, 1 Rabbit Hill Road, Westborough.