Animal advocates fear mowing may be responsible for over 100 snapping turtle hatchling deaths at Meadow Croft Estate
SAYVILLE, N.Y. -- There has been a troubling discovery at a Suffolk County park.
A local photographer found more than 100 dead and mangled baby snapping turtles. It's hatching season, and as CBS2's Carolyn Gusoff reported Thursday, animal advocates believe mowing the lawn at the wrong time is to blame.
The sprawling grounds of the Meadow Croft Estate in Sayville are freshly mowed, and that may have been terrible timing. Last week, dozens and dozens of baby snapping turtles were found dead there.
"I was horrified. I saw fresh mower tracks and I saw the devastation, destruction of turtles, parts, bodies. They were flat," Bayport resident Karen Hill Maloney said.
Maloney comes every year to photograph a wonder of nature, the hatching of New York's official reptile, the snapping turtle, but this time she found what she calls a young turtle massacre at the Suffolk park.
"All over the lawn, upside down, crushed. It was sad. It made me cry," Maloney said.
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Karenlynn Stracher, a wildlife rehabilitator, said she has little doubt mowing is to blame.
"How do you mow them over? We found carcasses everywhere," Stracher said.
The discovery has promoted an investigation by the Department of Environmental Conservation and the Suffolk Parks Department, which said, "Suffolk cares deeply about all wildlife living on County property and we do our best to protect all species at all times. We are aware of the situation at Meadow Croft Estate and staff has been deployed to investigate the site. Going forward we will be working with experts to determine any adjustments that could be made to prevent something like this from happening in the future."
John DeLeonardo of Humane Long Island says the county should have known better than to mow during the hatching season, since turtles lay eggs in the same place every year.
"Their first experience is being mowed to their deaths, so we are urging the county to do the right thing and insure this never happens again by prohibiting access to this area during nesting season," DiLeonardo said.
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Maloney was able to save 10 of the hatchlings by bringing them to a nearby creek. None of the others survived.
Turtle experts say it's a sad, cautionary tale. Turtles are in all of Long Island's fresh waterways.
"They are considered a keystone species. If they're removed from our environment the whole ecosystem can collapse. They're part of our balanced ecosystem and they are also part of our clean-up crew," said Karen Testa of Turtle Rescue of the Hamptons.
Humane Long Island is asking Suffolk County to prohibit mowing in the area from April to October so hatchlings are never destroyed again.
To avoid accidental destruction of a turtle nest, the DEC recommends surveying an area prior to mowing. The hatching season is typically in August and September.