The Cold-Blooded Cost of Roads: At-Risk Reptiles in a Fragmented Landscape

Presented by Joseph Kohut, Corridor Project Ecologist, Georgian Bay Land Trust

This talk will be presented on Zoom - register here to attend.

Why did the reptile cross the road?

Learn the answer to this question and more as Joseph takes us through the life history, migratory behaviours, and habitat selection process of Ontario’s snakes and turtles. We’ll discover why reptiles need to move through the landscape, and why roads are one of the biggest threats to reptile populations today, with impacts on individual mortality, life history processes, population dynamics, habitat viability, and landscape-level connectivity.

We’ll discuss the long-term implications of roads for reptile conservation, and explore what can be done to mitigate road mortality, looking at successful conservation efforts, strategies that are currently being implemented by biologists across Ontario, and actions that members of the public can take.