Theodore the turtle was in the wrong place at the right time.

While crawling through a Will County preserve in May, he was discovered during a turtle survey conducted by the Forest Preserve District.

At first glance, he looked like the state-threatened ornate box turtles the District is working to protect and recover. But it turned out Theodore was a hybrid – half Eastern box turtle and half ornate box turtle – and that posed a threat to the preserve’s small ornate box turtle population.

“If he had been left in the preserve, he would have harmed the ornate box turtle population,” said Jen Guest, facility supervisor at Isle a la Cache Museum in Romeoville.

His spring discovery by a Forest Preserve staffer will help protect the ornate box turtles and also Theodore himself. Instead of being euthanized, Theodore was adopted by the District’s visitor services department and now lives at the museum as an ambassador animal, joining the museum’s four state-endangered Blanding’s turtles.

Unlike the aquatic Blanding’s turtles, Theodore is a terrestrial species and lives in a separate tank outfitted with a water bowl and places to burrow. He also will be getting a large turtle pen soon so he can exercise outdoors. 

Theodore is estimated to be about 9 years old and could live 50 years or more. So far, he has been enjoying a diet of fruit – especially apples – along with mealworms, earthworms, chicken and fresh dandelion greens.

“He’s kind of a noisy eater,” Guest said, referring to his loud apple crunching. 

Museum staff have taken to calling him Theo, Teddy or even Theodorable, but he’s more than just a cute addition to the facility.

“He would have been euthanized if he couldn’t be rehomed,” Guest said. “We saved him from that and now his life involves helping to teach about threatened and endangered species in our county.”

Don't dump your pets in the preserves

Theodore’s story is also a cautionary tale about pet ownership and wildlife conservation.

Becky Blankenship, the Forest Preserve District’s wildlife ecologist, said it’s likely Theodore is the result of someone releasing a pet Eastern box turtle into the wild. The species is native to southern Illinois, but not Will County.

“Occurrences in the northern half of Illinois are likely the result of pet releases,” Blankenship said. “Leaving them there would dilute or pollute the ornate box turtle genetics, which would be bad for this already small state-threatened population.”

The Illinois Department of Natural Resources granted the Forest Preserve permission to remove Theodore from the preserve. Blankenship said an effective population of 300 ornate box turtles is needed to maintain 90% of the population’s genetic diversity over 200 years. Since 2021, she has documented just 23 turtles in the wild, three of which have died.

The public can help by avoiding practices that harm turtle populations. Blankenship urges people not to collect or relocate turtles, not to release pet turtles into the wild and not to host turtle races that involve capturing wild turtles or dumping pet turtles into a preserve.

“Dumping animals in the preserve can make tough situations even worse,” Guest said. “If we keep doing that, threatened species keep getting diluted, and diluted and diluted – and that’s not helping their case. Species that are threatened could become endangered or extinct.”