2025

The Mission of the Ontario Turtle Conservation Centre (OTCC) is to strengthen and preserve Canada’s native turtle population and the habitats in which they live.

Our multi-pronged approach includes our: hospital and rehabilitation centre for injured turtles, hatchling rearing and release program, education and training programs designed for stakeholders in conservation and the community at large, ongoing field studies addressing species knowledge gaps and, use of data to contribute to the understanding of all turtle species and to global turtle conservaton.

OTCC has grown significantly over the past several years. This growth prompted our successful capital campaign which resulted in the construction of our new large state-of-the-art facility. We are extremely excited to finally be occupying our new space in time for turtle season. Our new facility has a large turtle hospital including a viewing window into the surgery room from the large educational space.

The number of turtles admitted continues to increase every year. 2300 injured turtles were admitted in 2024 and we anticipate this number to continue to increase as citizens become more focused on wildlife conservation, awareness that we are here and knowledgeable regarding how to rescue an injured turtle.

More injured turtles, equates to more veterinarian care and medical supplies and services needed such as; analgesics (pain medication), antibiotics, fluids, bandaging materials, sugical materials (suture, instruments) and autoclave costs.

The focus on this grant request is for financial support for medical supplies for OTCC’s hospital.

Turtles represent a significant biomass in our wetland ecosystems and play a vital role in keeping them healthy. Vibrant functioning wetlands are not only essential for turtles, they are important for human health as these ecosystems act as the filtration system for much of the freshwater on our planet.

In Canada all eight native fresh-water turtle species are now listed as Species at Risk by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC).

This means every turtle matters. With road mortality second only to habitat loss as a reason for population declines, the work we carry out in our hospital is vital.