Help & Advice: Injured & Ill
Call or text New Hampshire Turtle Rescue at(603) 417-4944when you find an injured, ill or imperiled turtle, or with any turtle questions.
NH Fish and Game hasthis great resourceon what to do when you find an injured turtle in New Hampshire; we will also be reiterating this information below in our steps on what to do when you find injured and ill wild turtles. New Hampshire Turtle Rescue is ran by licensed wildlife rehabilitators in the state of New Hampshire and are licensed to receive all listed and non-listed species, as shown on theNH Fish and Game’s Licensed Wildlife Rehabilitators page. “Listed” species are endangered or threated to become endangered. In the state of New Hampshire the listed species includes:Blanding’s Turtles,Eastern Box Turtles,Spotted Turtles, andWood Turtles.
When you find an injured or ill turtle, please call or text us at(603) 417-4944 as quickly as possible so we can coordinate transport of the turtle to give them to best chances of recovery.
When you find an injured or ill turtle, take these steps:
1) Safely get the turtle out of harm's way
The first step when you find an injured turtle is to get them out of harm’s way. If the turtle is in the road, be very careful – many times cars will not slow down for us, so please be cautious.
If you have a container such as a cardboard box or plastic totes, collect the turtle and put them inside the car in a quiet place outside of the reach of children and pets, and away from other disturbances to limit stress. If you do not have a container, you can still get the turtle out of harm’s way; for example, if they are in the middle of the road, place them far off the side of the road. Please then call us immediately for advice at(603) 417-4944.
2) Collect location information
Turtles are extremely tied to their local environments, and it is very important we know as much information as possible about the finding location to determine the closest safe location for release.
The most important information is where they were found, such as coordinates or a nearby address or landmark. In addition, notes on direction of travel, details on the situation (for example, if they were upside down), landmarks or notable features, and photos showing the area all are very helpful to us as well.
3) Coordinating transport
If you are able to transport the turtle to us in Nottingham, that will be the fastest solution to get that turtle the help it needs. However, we know that is not always possible and we are working on growing our Turtle Transport network to respond to these situations as quickly as possible. If you are unable to transport, we will coordinate a nearby convenient location to you for us to do a hand-off with one of our transport volunteers.
