- Alright guys, let's kind of scout along this fence line.
We got something right here, wait a second.
It's a Blanding's, 100% Blanding's turtle.
The second it starts to move,
I'm gonna literally just gun it.
(melodic suspenseful music)
Got it!
Yes!
(dynamic jungle music)
(melodic orchestral music)
Beyond the shores of Ohio's mainland
exist a series of islands,
that most people have never heard of,
no, they are not tropical
or lined with elegant white sand beaches,
but instead are a unique bio diverse world unto their own.
These isolated bodies of land
have an incredibly rich history,
that dates back hundreds of years
and over time, they have also become a refuge
for a number of different animal species.
Today we are exploring Middle Bass Island,
a location that I hold dear in my heart
for it is one of the first places, where I practiced
my animal and adventure video-making techniques.
There we go, that's a pretty good sized one right there!
See those old pictures of me
in a straw hat and waders, circa 2009?
Yep, that's Coyote Peterson looking for snapping turtles
in the Middle Bass Marsh
well before anyone knew who Coyote Peterson was.
This protected wetland is home
to a wide variety of creatures and earlier this year,
I made a discovery that was absolutely thrilling,
a population of Blanding's turtles.
These elusive reptiles have a very limited range
within the Eastern United States
and are considered to be incredibly rare.
My intention is to safely catch
and get one of these remarkable turtles
up close for the cameras,
so that we can all learn about this unique animal
and why its environment
so desperately needs to be protected.
Yet as we know,
catching turtles is much easier said than done.
- Hey, your hat, your hat! - Where'd it go?
There it is.
- Where's the turtle? - Too deep, too quick.
Alright guys, let's kind of scout along this fence line.
- [Mario] So in terms of turtles,
for you, this is like a rare animal?
- This is about as rare as it gets for turtles, guys,
their range is so limited and up here on the Erie Islands,
it's the only place where I have ever seen one.
We got something right here, another turtle, wait a second.
It's a Blanding's, 100% Blanding's turtle.
That is the turtle that we are after.
Alright, Mario, get into position with the shot.
- [Mario] Okay.
- The second it starts to move,
I'm gonna literally just gun it.
(melodic suspenseful music)
(dynamic melodic music)
Got it!
Yes! - Woo! (laughing)
- Yeah!
That is a Blanding's turtle, ladies and gentlemen,
one of the rarest turtles in the Northeastern United States.
Okay, guys, let's set the scene, come on down here,
we're gonna tuck back into the underbrush
and get this one up close for the cameras, woo!
- [Mario] Oh man, nice.
(light melodic music)
- Wow!
What a day for an epic turtle catch.
Now like I was saying,
as we were spying that turtle from a distance,
the Blanding's turtle is one of the rarest turtle species
here in Ohio, in fact the Erie Islands are the only place,
where I have ever seen this species.
Now I wanna take a good up close look at this turtle,
so that we can all appreciate it
for the perfect reptilian design that it is.
Hoo, I'm just so excited right now!
That was a tough catch and exactly like I predicted,
the turtle launched off board
and what I did is grab onto all of the plants,
all of the sticks that are beneath the surface,
tangled the turtle up
and then was able to get my hands on it.
Now this is a very docile species,
unlike snapping turtles, they very rarely will bite.
Look at this,
I can put my finger all the way in by its mouth
and all it wants to do is tuck in tighter
and start to close up its plastron.
Now let's take a good look at the carapace,
which as we know is the top of the shell
of the Blanding's turtle.
Now it's not real distinct,
but you can see that speckled patterning
all along the scutes, that are on the body
and it's more distinct on the sides,
let me turn it like this as well, you see that?
And during breeding season,
that becomes more bright yellow in coloration.
Now let's take a look at the plastron of this turtle,
yellowish in coloration with dark black blotches,
it actually resembles the plastron of a wood turtle,
which is another species
that is similar in size to this turtle,
but what's really cool about the Blanding's
is it has a semi-hinged plastron
I don't know if you can see that from the side there,
but if I push on it a little bit, you see that?
It can almost completely tuck into its shell
like a box turtle, but not completely,
which leaves a little bit of flesh exposed,
I imagine that's why they developed
all these really tough scales,
that run along the forelimbs and the hind limbs
and then of course you have these very sharp claws
and I can imagine that as a predator,
that's not something you would wanna mess with.
Now as this turtle begins to figure out
that we are not predators,
we are not trying to eat this turtle,
it is going to get comfortable,
it's gonna come out of its shell and we are going to see
just how long those legs and that neck is
and one of the most distinct signs
that it is a Blanding's turtle
as compared to any of the other aquatic species here in Ohio
is the bright yellow chin.
Now during the breeding season,
that yellow coloration is much more elegant,
it almost glows bright yellow
and similar to a bullfrog, which as you know,
bullfrogs are amphibians, turtles are reptiles,
but that bright yellow coloration,
there we go, look at the extent of the neck there, wow!
Look at that periscoping ability, beautiful.
Now what's unique about the body design of this turtle
is that you'll see it's very oval in shape
and this is what's considered a medium sized turtle
in the grand scheme of turtle species,
but that oval design
makes them very aerodynamic in the water,
which allows them to move through the dense environment
that they're living in,
if you point your camera down here,
look at all this glop that this turtle is existing in,
dense grasses, duckweed and sticks.
So this turtle can easily climb its way
through all this underbrush and oftentimes
you will see these turtles out this time of day,
early morning when the sun
is just beginning to get towards the noon hour,
what they're doing is basking
and this large carapace allows them to soak up the sun,
then they'll head back into the water
to start hunting for the day.
Now what does the Blanding's turtle eat?
These guys are omnivores,
which means they will eat both plant and animal matter,
now they specialize in eating small crustaceans
like crayfish, also arthropods like dragonfly larvae,
but they have been known to take small fish, baby frogs
and will even feast on the duckweed
and the plants that are in the wetland ecosystem.
Now when I say this is one of the rarest turtle species
in Ohio or in the Northeastern United States as a whole,
they also range up into Canada,
now they are considered critically endangered in some areas
and threatened in others.
Now we have caught this turtle,
that's in a marsh next to a roadway, which is crazy,
there's actually a lot of pollution in here, guys,
that's unfortunate for the turtle,
but it's a good sign that this turtle is thriving,
this is actually a very healthy Blanding's turtle.
We've seen lots of frogs, lots of plants
for this turtle to eat and certainly lots of insects,
as far as crustaceans,
I don't know that this is the environment for crayfish,
but I can tell you that this is one healthy turtle.
Alright, I'm gonna dunk him down in the water for a second,
I wanna make sure that the turtle is staying cool.
I'll dunk him all the way down and bring him up
and sometimes this is all you will see right there
is just the carapace up on the surface,
the turtle can breathe and stay camouflaged at the same time
and notice the speckling on the carapace,
this turtle looks just like one of these logs, look at this,
so if I bring this log over here
and both were at the surface covered in duckweed,
it'd be very tough to distinguish between the two.
So what would potentially eat a Blanding's turtle?
Other than river otters and maybe mink,
a turtle this size is only threatened by human encroachment,
now what human encroachment means
is either the building of roads,
the destruction of wetlands,
obviously pollution is a threat,
but as long as this turtle stays healthy,
it is gonna have a very long and happy life.
Well, how cool was this, managing to find and catch
one of the rarest turtles in the Northeastern United States,
the one and only Blanding's turtle?
I'm Coyote Peterson, be brave, stay wild,
we'll see you on the next adventure.
Alright, let's let this turtle go and then help it out
by picking up some of the trash in this environment.
Throughout my life, I have been fortunate enough
to catch a wide range of turtle species,
yet none of them have been as rare or meaningful to me
as the Blanding's turtle.
These beautiful reptiles
are constantly under the threat of human encroachment
and face an unknown future as to whether or not
their species will ultimately survive.
To find a healthy population in a remote and isolated place
like Middle Bass Island is incredibly promising
for an animal such as this turtle
and I hope that by sharing this news with the world,
we can garner a greater interest
for protecting this location
and the natural treasures that call it home.
Alright, so we just finished filming
with one incredibly handsome Blanding's turtle,
that lives right here in this marsh behind me,
but what I did notice, if you point your camera down here
is there is a lot of pollution in this marsh.
Now this pollution actually comes from storm surge,
just on the other side of us here is Lake Erie,
when that water rises, a lot of times it brings debris,
trash, wood, you name it into a marsh like this.
Now anytime we go to a location,
we oftentimes have trash bags with us,
primarily to keep cameras dry
just in case it starts to rain,
but in this instance I'm gonna take a bag,
Mario, I'm gonna hand a bag to you
and what we're gonna do now is take the next hour
to head off down into the marsh
and pick up some of the trash that we find,
that will ensure a healthy and happy ecosystem
for all the species that live here.
Alright, crossing back to where we filmed with the turtle
to find some garbage, lots of pieces of Styrofoam,
these probably come from boat buoys and stuff like that,
that does not biodegrade right there.
- Got a lot of random pieces of plastic,
plastic of course remains in the environment
for thousands of years actually,
it's very hard to break down naturally,
so you're gonna have lots of these random plastics.
- Look at this, that's actually a fishing lure,
no hooks on it, which is good,
it means the turtle won't accidentally eat it,
but we still wanna get it anyways.
Alright, let's cross this, go into the underbrush.
Ooh, there's something, I don't know what this is.
That's a fake baby bottle right there,
some little kid lost that one off a boat
at some point in time, I'm sure.
(light melodic music)
- [Mario] Hey, Coyote!
I think you could reach this guy right here.
- [Coyote] Plastic floater right there.
- Oh! - Ooh!
Oh, that's glass.
Grotty, that is an old bottle right there,
I gotta be careful of that one,
so that it doesn't break and cut my hand.
That's gonna add a lot of weight.
Man, that's pretty nasty right there.
Look at this.
That is a giant lid to something,
definitely does not belong in the environment.
I'll toss this up on the road and pick it up,
it's not gonna fit in my bag.
Okay, I'll come back for that one.
- So often it's the little pieces that are overlooked
like bottle caps and plastic caps like this,
oftentimes these make a bigger impact in the environment,
'cause they're smaller, you know, an animal could eat this
thinking it's an insect or something.
But in this area right here, you've got hundreds,
hundreds of pieces of these little plastics.
- Now when it comes to pieces of wood, I leave those,
because those are actually great platforms
for turtles to lay out on and bask, same with frogs,
frogs will oftentimes come out
and sit in the sun to warm up.
Alright, we've got a lot of the trash back there.
- [Mario] How's it going so far?
- [Coyote] Oh, so far, so good, man, look at this.
(melodic orchestral music)
- [Mario] Ugh!
- It's an old bottle of something.
It's just water in there.
Yep.
- [Mario] What's your coolest find?
- Fishing lures, I'm finding that there are a lot
of fishing lures in here, which is really bad.
The good news is the fishing lures
strangely do not have hooks, but fishing lures,
because they're little fish
can oftentimes be mistaken for food by turtles,
so I'm really glad to see that none of them had hooks
and obviously none of them were in the mouths of turtles.
- Nice. - But fishing lures
are definitely something that I'm finding a lot of.
How's your bag doing?
- It's doing good,
I'm focusing on a lot of smaller objects,
so it may not be as heavy,
but there is a lot of little things in it.
There's a lot of tiny miscellaneous plastic pieces,
that could go overlooked and those are quite dangerous,
because animals could potentially swallow them,
if they're kind of bite size.
So yeah, that's what I'm trying to focus on,
these little plastic things.
Look at that, that's just a little cap right there.
- [Coyote] Nice, I'm pretty maxed out, man.
- Oh, yeah. - That's a lot of garbage,
that's about 10 pounds' worth of trash right there.
- [Mario] What time is it?
Oh, we are a little bit over an hour.
- It's been a little over an hour, alright,
I think considering my bag is pretty full
and I'm seeing a lot of duckweed and not a lot of pollution
means I think we can call it a day,
I think we've done our job here.
- Alright. - Alright, good job!
Cleaning up the environment.
(melodic orchestral music)
Human encroachment is a major threat,
that animals like the Blanding's turtles
face on a constant basis
and while we as a species are certainly here to stay,
there are many ways in which we can help
keep wild places clean,
one of the simplest steps is simply picking up litter,
whether it's in a wetland ecosystem or your community park,
every little bit counts.
So if you have some extra time on your hands,
pick up a trash bag, head outside
and see how much litter you can collect,
it's a fun way to ensure that the environment stays healthy
and trust me when I say
the animals greatly appreciate your kindness.
Alright guys, well, the Blanding's turtle's environment
is officially cleaned up to the best of our ability,
that's the largest piece I found,
some sort of a plastic top to a container
and between myself and Mario,
we collected around 25 pounds' worth of garbage
out of this swamp.
Now us was coming out to collect it
isn't going to remove every single piece,
but every little bit helps.
If you enjoyed this encounter, make sure to go back
and watch as we get the cameras up close
with some of the planet's most fascinating animals
and don't forget, subscribe and click the notification bell,
so you can join me and the crew on our next wild adventure.
(light jungle music)
(birds twittering)