NEW STUDY: Why did the chicken turtle cross the road?

SANIBEL, Fla. — Instead of why the chicken crossed the road, maybe we should ask ourselves about the chicken turtle. We actually may never know, they are so rare on the island of Sanibel.

Fox 4 Meteorologist Andrew Shipley spoke with the Sanibel Captiva Conservation Foundation about a new grant they received to study this elusive turtle.

“Since the 5 years I have been, we have only found about 25 of these guys,” said SCCF Wildlife Biologist Mike Mills.

You are probably asking yourself what is a chicken turtle?

“It gets name from a record from the 1800s, where people were saying it tastes like chicken, and it was said to be more palatable than other turtles like sliders and river cooters,” said Mills.

Despite its rumored taste, SCCF isn’t looking to eat these turtles, but instead better understand them. The problem is they are hard to find.

“So, when it rains, you have all these seasonal wetlands fill out. And (the turtle) is going to stay in those wetlands pretty much until they dry up, like right now,” said Mills. “And when it dries up, it will actually bury itself maybe 5-6 centimeters under the ground.”

Thanks to the new grant, Mills says SCCF will be tagging these reptiles to understand their movements, which will help them get a better idea of the size of the population.

“With the chicken turtles we don’t even have enough information to even consider if they are endangered,” said Mills.

But like all turtle species, they are facing a number of threats.

“Habitat and then poaching. A lot of these guys will get pouched out for the illegal pet trade,” said Mills.

SCCF says the surveying and tagging will start again this upcoming wet season.