An endangered female Blanding’s turtle in a Massachusetts vernal pool. I took a risk taking this shot, but thankfully I was able to pull it off by just dipping the front end of my fisheye lens under the surface of the water.
Due to their long lifespans, a turtle species can become functionally extinct while just a handful of survivors live in isolation for decades, possibly more than a century.
A young male Wood Turtle that was hit by a car last summer, patched up by our vet, and later released with small radio transmitter, survived his first winter since his injury and is in great health.