NH Turtle Rescue

05/01/2025

This morning we had the chance to catch up with our colleagues over at Millstone Wildlife Center in Windham. They're having a very busy season as well! They have been very generous by helping to triage and hold turtles for us until they can be transported to our clinic in Nottingham. We really appreciate their hard work and willingness to give us a hand when needed.

Wildlife rehabilitation is hard work, and we are fortunate to have such wonderful and kind rehabilitators in New Hampshire!

If you find a sick or injured animal, call a licensed wildlife rehabilitator for help – don't try to take things into your own hands! A list of state-licensed wildlife rehabilitators can be found at https://www.wildlife.nh.gov/wildlife-and-habitat/rehabilitators

You can also go to Animal Help Now at https://ahnow.org to find the closest rehabilitator to you.

Together, we can all make a difference for our cherished wildlife in New Hampshire! ❤️🐢🦇🐿️🦝🦨🦫🦅🐦‍⬛

Send a message to learn more

05/01/2025

It’s that time of year again: turtles are on the move! Last week marked the beginning of our rehabilitation season with multiple car hit patients of the season, including threatened and endangered turtles.

Please be on the lookout for turtles crossing the road! If you do come across a turtle in the road, you can save that turtle’s life by:

1) Pulling over to the side of the road

2) Picking up the turtle and place them on the side of the road, ALWAYS in the direction they were already headed, and ONLY when safe to do so.

They are stubborn and know where they are going, so turning them around does not work, even if they're moving away from water and you think they should be going the other way.

Also, NEVER relocate a turtle - they are extremely tied to their local environments and should never be moved to a different location.

You can read more about how to help turtles cross on our website: https://nhturtlerescue.org/info/turtle-crossing

If you have doubts about a situation, you can call or text us at (603) 417-4944 anytime. Thank you for caring about our shelled neighbors! 💚🐢

05/01/2025

The ONLY way to guarantee a future for New Hampshire's native turtles is to keep their habitats intact and unimpacted by human development. The national housing crisis is putting a lot of pressure on these precious lands, and once they're gone, they're gone forever!

This seminar from NHACC will talk about what they think a balanced aproach would be – make sure to check it out!

Balancing Conservation and Housing Development Zoom on May 7th, 12-1 pm

Register online: https://www.nhacc.org/resources/resources

Housing is a major issue right now due to a combination of economic, social, and policy-related factors. In addition to a severe shortage of housing in many areas, rising home prices and rent costs, high interest rates, and regulatory restrictions all add to the overall lack of affordable housing. With this era-defining issue, there is concern that housing development conflicts with efforts to preserve natural habitats, open spaces, and environmental protection. However, certain regulatory solutions exist for municipalities to link natural resource protection with housing development. Join Zak Brohinsky and Steve Whitman from Resilience Planning & Design as they discuss (1) the importance of local regulations to drive housing development while preserving critical habitats and open space, (2) the key decision points to understand that can incentivize development types, and (3) case study examples from municipalities in New Hampshire.

04/30/2025

Turtle season has officially begun, and we need your help! NH Turtle Rescue is an entirely volunteer-run organization, and we rely completely upon donations from the public to carry out our work rescuing and rehabilitating the native turtles of New Hampshire.

Here are some of the things your generous donations will allow us to accomplish:

❤️‍🩹 Purchase medical supplies and equipment for emergency care and triage

🏥 Utilize critical veterinary services such as radiographs, diagnostic testing, and surgical procedures

🥗 Provide high-quality nutrition to our patients and residents

🧑‍🏫 Enable us to provide turtle presentations and outreach to NH communities with budgetary constraints

🪚 Build custom enclosures tailored for each species to minimize stress and promote healing

👶 Headstart critically-endangered Eastern Box Turtle hatchlings to bolster their scant populations in NH

You can donate through our website as well, or via snail mail to:
💌 PO Box 185, Nottingham NH 03290

Your contribution will make an impact, whether you donate $5 or $500. Every little bit helps. If you aren't able to donate, please share this post to your friends and followers to help spread the word! Thank you for your support!

Send a message to learn more

04/29/2025

We’ll be in Newmarket next week! We hope to see you there!

We can't wait for Turtlefest on May 10! If you can't make it, swing by the library on Tuesday, May 6 and meet 🐢 Register to attend at newmarketlibrary.org

04/26/2025

A very tragic story to serve as a reminder NEVER to cut a fishing line when you’ve hooked a turtle, and moreso, NEVER try to do the job yourself before contacting a licensed rehabilitator for guidance. This poor snapping turtle could have been a quick success but instead became a victim of human hubris. Wildlife rehabilitators are here to help you! 🐢💚

It didn’t have to be this way. 💔

When we received a call this morning about a turtle with a fish hook in her mouth, we were fully prepared to deal with it. Although fish hook injuries are serious without treatment, they can generally be removed without much issue, and the turtle will usually fully recover with a short course of antibiotics. This would have been an easy case.

Instead, the people who hooked this turtle ghosted us for five hours, calling us only after they had cut the line and tried to remove the hook themselves by rigging a tool to stick into her mouth, and, in the process, pushed the hook deep into her esophagus.

X rays showed that their “help” had sentenced her to death. This sharp hook had cut her esophagus and couldn’t possibly be removed— or left to pass naturally— without it causing her unbearable pain and ultimately death. We made the decision to humanely euthanize her.

While we appreciate that the people who caught her cared enough to recognize that she needed help, and reached out to us to get that help, it is very frustrating that they took her care into their own hands and ultimately killed her.

Please, if you catch a turtle on a fish hook, call a wildlife rehabilitator and do not try to remove the hook yourself unless you can do so very easily. We can remove fish hooks without issue, but only if the turtle comes to us with the hook still in the mouth, not inside the body.

04/25/2025

UPDATE: Transport found. Thank you so much for all your generosity in spreading the word and offering to helpl! 💚💚

**URGENT TRANSPORT HELP NEEDED**

We need help transporting an injured turtle from Meredith, NH to our clinic in Nottingham. We have have been unable to find help. Please reach out ASAP if available to help - 603-417-4944. Thank you!

04/16/2025

This is fantastic news for our threatened and endangered native turtle species! Moosewood Ecological is the perfect organization for this partnership and we are so excited to see them be a part of this effort! 🐢💚

04/12/2025

Good morning turtle friends! 💚🐢

Today at 12pm we'll be holding our 1st turtle transport orientation meeting of the season. We hope to see you there! For more details and to sign up, check our event page here: https://secure.givelively.org/event/new-hampshire-turtle-rescue-inc/turtle-transport-volunteer-training-2025-orientation

During the active season for turtles (~ late April through September) we rely heavily on our transport volunteers to assist in transportation of injured wild turtles to our clinic in Nottingham. We are especially in need of support in areas throughout northern and western New Hampshire, but all help is greatly appreciated.

If you are unable to make this event but are interesting in the Turtle Transport volunteer role, we will be holding another orientation with the amazing Harris Center for Conservation Education on May 13th: https://harriscenter.org/events/turtle-transport-volunteer-training

We'd super appreciate if you'd share either event with any friends and family who may be interested in signing up. Thank you so much!

Have a wonderful weekend!

[Attached are a few recent photos of patients during cleaning time. All are staying with us through the winter healing from their injuries, and will be released in the spring!]

02/14/2025

Happy Valentine’s Day! 💕🐢💕

We have some new Valentine’s Day cards featuring New Hampshire’s native turtle species. Last year’s cards are available in addition to this year on the website: https://nhturtlerescue.org/resources.

Sign up for our newsletter to get updates on additional resources added to the website. The sign up form is in the footer (bottom) of any page on our website. We are sending out a special Valentine’s Day newsletter, let us know if you sign up but want to get today’s newsletter and we can get that to you.

02/04/2025

Hey turtle friends!

Shown here is Sorbus (spotted turtle) and Plum (Blanding’s turtle), both enjoying a good snooze on their basking platform.

We wanted to share a couple updates:
🐢 Our newsletter will be going out within the week! To subscribe and get more turtle news, fill out the form in the footer of our website. https://nhturtlerescue.org/
🐢 We just completed our 2024 Annual Report which is available for download on our website (About > Reports) https://nhturtlerescue.org/about/reports
🐢 We have a couple new tshirt designs available on our Bonfire https://www.bonfire.com/store/new-hampshire-turtle-rescue/

Hope everyone is having a good start to week! 💚🐢