Sanibel residents spot pregnant Florida chicken turtle
By SCCF - | Feb 17, 2021
SCCF
Doug and Leah Beck
During the last 30 years, the Florida chicken turtle has been rare on Sanibel, with only four verified sightings between the 1980s and 2019. But that changed recently when Doug and Leah Beck, who are major supporters of the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation’s terrestrial and freshwater turtle research, alerted herpetologist and Director of Wildlife & Habitat Management Chris Lechowicz to a strange-looking turtle crossing the street near their home.
He was excited to inform them it was in fact a pregnant female Florida chicken turtle. She was radiographed by the Clinic for the Rehabilitation of Wildlife, which showed seven eggs, and was outfitted with a radio transmitter.