Henry David Thoreau, Journal, March 13, 1859 - On the northeast part of the Great Fields, I find the broken shell of a Cistuda Blandingii [Blandings Tortise], on very dry soil. This is the fifth, then, I have seen in the town. All the rest were three in the Great Meadows (one of them in a ditch) and one within a rod or two of Beck Stow's Swamp.

Betty is an approximately year-old Blandings turtle, an endangered species and a very unusual resident of Concord. She was found near Great Meadows last year in late October, nearly a victim of the year's last mowing of Maurice Brodeur's back lawn. Maurice's wife, Andrea Taylor, has long been fascinated by turtles, and he knew enough to realize immediately the then 1.5" long Betty that she wasn't any run-of-the-mill hatchling.

They brought the turtle to neighbor Brian Windmiller, a biologist specializing in reptiles and amphibians, and a licensed wildlife rehabilitator. It has been so long since anyone has seen a Blandings hatchling in Concord -- probably more than 30 years, but no one can actually recall -- that it was difficult to identify what it was. "We had to eliminate all the other possibilities -- for example, box, painted, wood, and spotted turtles -- before we decided it must be a Blandings," says Taylor, who acts as Windmiller's assistant and has been able to watch Betty's continued growth and development. This also gives her plenty of opportunity to regularly draw Betty, which she has done for us on this page. (Taylor also illustrated the November, 1998 edition of this ezine.)

No one really knows where Betty came from. There was no nesting site and no other hatchlings or egg debris. And, because she didn't have any remains of an egg sac attached to her, it is assumed she must have been hatched out for a while. "Either she was looking for water to spend the winter in because it was getting cold, or she had been scooped up by some bird for its dinner but was accidently dropped and landed in our yard," Taylor surmises.

Though Thoreau called them "Blandings Tortises," they are actually turtles, the difference being that tortoises are solely land animals and turtles are either aquatic or semi-aquatic, like the Blandings. But because they are so rare, there isn't much known about the care and handling of Blandings turtles. Some things have to be assumed from knowledge about other species. In fact, it's not even sure she's a female, and they could find no one who could provide Blandings sexing tips. But, taking what is known about carapace (upper shell) and plastron (lower shell) shapes among snapping turtles, Taylor and Windmiller are guessing this is a female. Which makes Betty all the more interesting in that almost all the Concord Blandings Windmiller knows are males.

Blandings are occasionally observed in Concord, including in the Great Meadows area as they were in Thoreau's day. In June, July and August, they may be observed walking around out of the water eating berries, digging for worms, and -- for the females -- laying their eggs. "Throughout last summer when the water was low enough, I saw two adults -- about 14" long and probably 25-30 years old -- sunning themselves in the Great Meadows area," says Taylor. She also saw a female laying her eggs last year. Until Betty, these were the only three Blandings she has seen in Concord.

As she ages, Betty's carapace will become more domed and "helmet"-shaped (photo of an adult's shell here). She is only just now developing a touch of the characteristic intense yellow on her throat and the edges of her plastron that will be very apparent in older specimens (photo at right -- note the seeming smile is genuine, not just a figment of Taylor's imagination) -- a hue completely absent in the hatchling.

Over the next months, she will be introduced to more and more natural habitat and opportunities to develop wild behavior. For example, she has recently been given a sand box with gravel, shells, and mealy worms buried in it. She is still hesitant to do much digging, and doesn't care a bit for the worms, but the hope is she will get interested as she grows older. Approximating more normal wild conditions is important in anticipation for her later release.

Eventually, her real dreamhouse will be in the wild. Now almost 3" in length, Betty will spend the rest of the year in human care to help increase her chances for health and survival. If all goes well, she will be released in late April of 2001, a typical time of year for rehabilitated turtle to be released.

Windmiller knows each Concord Blandings turtle by the marks and nicks in its shell. It is likely that if Betty survives, she will be found now and again, her whereabouts will be reported, and she will be recognized by those who know her.

Interested in New England amphibians and reptiles? Go to the New England Herpetological Society for more info. And here's the best site on the Web we could find about Blandings turtles.