Wood turtles (glyptemys insculpta) are a semiaquatic freshwater species endemic to the unitedstates and canada, and their populations are declining throughout their range (jones ET AL. 2018)

Thisspecies was petitioned for listing under the endangered species act in 2012 in 2015, the U.S. Fish andwildlife service determined that wood turtles may warrant listing as threatened or endangered (centerfor biological diversity 2012 USFWS 2015). Wood turtles are threatened by habitat alteration andstream degradation, disease, invasive plants, illegal collection for the pet trade, increased mortality due toroad and agricultural machinery, and mammalian predators (jones ET AL. 2018).headstarting is an approach that gives hatchling turtles a head start at life by allowing them togrow in a laboratory for their first year of development, which reduces their chances of being eaten by apredator during the juvenile stage (mullin ET AL. 2023). This strategy will likely increase the survival rateof juvenile wood turtles and may allow the population to recover from its recent decline in populationsize (buhlmann ET AL. 2024). In 2023, susquehannock wildlife society (SWS) began headstarting apopulation of wood turtles in harford county, maryland in collaboration with the maryland ZOO inbaltimore and the maryland department of natural resources (wildlife and heritage) under the scientificcollections permit #: 56714. Since 2023, we have released 18 headstart wood turtles back into the wild attwo sites where long-term monitoring and conservation efforts are being conducted by SWS. Currently, we are headstarting eight individuals at the SWS wildlife center, which will be released back into thewild in 2025 and five headstarts are being monitored with radio telemetry. Our approach to headstarting consists of using radio telemetry to track adult females to theirnests, protecting the nest from mammalian predators using wire mesh cages, excavating the nests after 45DAYS of wild incubation, transporting the eggs to the SWS wildlife centers laboratory, incubating theeggs until hatching occurs, raising the hatchlings in aquaria, screening the headstarts for diseasepre-release, and releasing them back into the wild (toronto ZOO 2017 mullin 2019). Post-release, wemonitor the survival, dispersal, home range, and habitat use of the headstarts via radio telemetry andstandardized visual encounter surveys (jones ET AL. 2018 buhlmann ET AL. 2024).