If you’re a grandparent (or know one!), you know how exciting it is when your baby has a baby of their own. For ZNE’s Field Conservation Department, the turtles we headstart are kind of like our babies, so you can imagine how thrilled we are to announce a major milestone in our turtle conservation efforts: one of our headstarted turtles, raised at Stone Zoo 15 years ago, has just laid eggs of her own.
In 2010, our fledgling turtle headstarting program looked quite different than it does now. Dr. Bryan Windmiller had established a Blanding’s turtle conservation project in Concord, Massachusetts, and set up nest protection and hatchling care protocols, but the efficacy of using both animal care professionals and schoolkids to raise turtles had yet to be determined. That year we protected a then-record ten Blanding’s turtle nests around Great Meadows National Wildlife in Concord, Mass. One of these nests was from Turtle 2031, who had traveled more than 1.2 miles from the wetlands in Great Meadows to nest, a perilous journey that would have involved crossing Route 62.
Volunteer Seamus Vahey poses next to the nest of Turtle 2031
“The nest produced 11 healthy hatchlings—ten males and one female,” remembers John Berkholtz, now a Senior Field Conservationist in the Field Conservation Department, though at the time he was keeper at Stone Zoo, volunteering his time to support Dr. Windmiller. Some of the siblings were raised at local schools that still participate in HATCH today, like Thoreau Elementary and Willard Elementary in Concord, Massachusetts. The only female and four of her brothers spent their headstart year at Stone Zoo, under John’s care.
The tiny female, marked #144, was only 7 grams when she hatched, the smallest of all of her siblings. After 10 months of expert care from John and the other Stone Zoo keepers, she was released back into the wetlands of Great Meadows in 2011, weighing 118 grams. For over a decade, she remained unseen—until July 2023, when she was recaptured during a routine turtle survey. In an odd twist of fate, she was found by Julia Hubbard, a Concord resident who had raised turtles in her classroom as a 4th grader and then come back to help on the project as a college intern that summer. Turtle #144 weighed over 900 grams (big enough to be considered an adult) but by that point in the season we had already used up all the radiotransmitters we use to track turtles, so we recorded her data and released her once again.
In 2024, she was spotted on land during nesting season by Alison Robbins, a conservation veterinarian and the wife of Dr. Windmiller, while she was out walking her dogs. Jimmy Welch, Senior Field Conservationist, rushed out to the site. “We thought we might find her nesting, but our hopes were quickly dashed: she was walking back to the wetland, weighing about 100 grams less than the last time we had seen her. And she had dirt on the back of her shell, all strong signs she had just finished nesting! We fitted her with a radio transmitter and began monitoring her closely but she did not return to land again that year.”
Our staff have kept tabs on her ever since, and on June 25th, 2025, we found her in a particularly meaningful spot: a wildflower meadow that has been specifically protected as Blanding’s turtle nesting habitat. “She began digging around 9pm, just as it was getting dark,” Jimmy recalls. He patiently stood watch as she dug a small hole over the course of the next 5 hours. “She eventually started laying eggs at 2:30 AM. I was able to watch her lay eight eggs and then carefully cover her nest.” It wasn’t until 3:30 am that she returned to the wetland, and Jimmy proudly protected her nest.
Blanding’s turtle #144 laying eggs – the first recorded nest of a headstarted turtle in our 20-year project history.
This moment is a powerful testament to what’s possible when passion, persistence, and partnership come together in service of conservation. It reflects more than a decade of tireless work—by zookeepers, scientists, volunteers, students, and community members—each playing a role in giving this turtle a chance not just to survive, but to contribute to the next generation. Conservation is rarely about instant results. It’s a long, patient journey filled with uncertainty, setbacks, and quiet victories. Every hatchling raised, every wetland protected, every data point recorded adds up over time. And sometimes, those small, steady efforts culminate in a moment like this—when a single turtle returns to the wild to lay her own eggs.
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