Pregnant turtles are increasingly being hit by drivers this mating season

As if pregnancy is not challenging enough, a tortoise-expecting-mother was recently hit by a car.

“She came in with that car trauma,” said Rachel Rainbolt an education and development manager at CROW Clinic.

That is what the folks at Crow Clinic on Sanibel Island believe happened to a gopher tortoise who was a mother-to-be.

“We x-rayed her,” Rainbolt said, “and upon looking at the radiographs noticed that she had these eggs within her.”

The victim does not have a traditional name. It is 20-66. She spends her days at Crow while she recovers. The medical team there places a temporary feeding tube inside her to provide the nutrition and medication she needs, without having to force feed her.

Not all the tortoises in the hospital are gravid, or pregnant. There are about at least five others, but 20-66 is the only recovering mother.

But that did not last for long. During our reporting, another gravid turtle came in with an injury.

Shelli Albright, office and admissions manager at Crow Clinic, said it is seeing more turtles than average for this time of the year. Right now, turtles are in the middle of nesting season.

“It’s very likely a mama turtle that’s just trying to get somewhere to safely lay eggs,” Albright said.

“Well since nesting season has started for our turtles,” Rainbolt said, “CROW has admitted about ten or more that have come in gravid or pregnant related to vehicular trauma.”

To cut down on those numbers, CROW advises motorists to look out for critters on the roadways. If you come across a reptile in distress, call the clinic. If you can and the animal is not hurt, you can move it off the roadway. These precautions can save more than one life.

“We can release those babies near where the mother was trying to lay them originally,” Rainbolt said.