I made the mistake of telling my hunting dog "good girl" after she brought me a turtle once. Now she hunts them out to retrieve to me (unharmed) on purpose this time of year every year.
I've lived in Burtonsville for 25 yrs. I use to stop and help them cross my long driveway about 30 times a summer. Now it is rare to do it more than a few times. My unscientific method says there is a problem.
We had a German Shepard when I was a kid that would bring box turtles home occasionally. She would drop them in front of you all proud of herself and then start nudging them with her nose like “I swear this thing was moving when I found it”
If you kept her away from it but in sight, she would lose it when the turtle finally started moving again. Eventually she stopped bringing them home
My Labs dig up old tennis balls and even dive underwater to get them out of the nearby marshlands. Yes box turtle populations are significantly down in Maryland. They are territorial, usually living in a 6 acre area they were they were born. I have been pulling them off busy roads for decades even stopping traffic to my surprise applause. I've never caught anything even ones hit and putting their shells back together. I now keep surgical gloves, and leather gloves in my vehicle for the task.....little things need human help sometimes. Still think they are cool.....but they don't look like tennis balls to my Labs!
My Labs dig up old tennis balls and even dive underwater to get them out of the nearby marshlands. Yes box turtle populations are significantly down in Maryland. They are territorial, usually living in a 6 acre area they were born. I have been pulling them off busy roads for decades even stopping traffic to my surprise applause. I've never caught anything even ones hit and putting their shells back together. I now keep surgical gloves, and leather gloves in my vehicle for the task.....little things need human help sometimes. Still think they are cool.....but they don't look like tennis balls to my Labs!
I just saved a turt in Edgewater. While I didn't block traffic, people stopped and let me run across the road and I got lots of thumbs up from the passing motorists.