Ten rescued box turtles have new homes in the wild at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden's farm in Warren County. The reptiles were released Wednesday and promptly waddled — slowly — into the forest and a thicket of stinging nettles.
Two dozen turtles were rescued in Sept. 2025 from a school courtyard in West Carrollton, Ohio. The population had been living there for around 30 years after being placed by retired staff members. The zoo says the staff were unaware of state regulations against collecting and keeping box turtles and other wild animals.
The school was slated for demolition, so district officials reached out to the Ohio Division of Wildlife to find out about rehoming the terrapins. They ranged from adults to recent hatchlings.
The turtles moved from the zoo to pens at the farm in May in order to get acclimated to the property. There they were mixed with additional confiscated and surrendered turtles to strengthen the group's genetic diversity.
"Turtles are actually a pretty highly trafficked animal and found in the pet trade. It is actually illegal to take box turtles from the wild, which is an important message," Mollie O’Neil, the Cincinnati Zoo’s director of community partnerships in conservation, tells WVXU.
"I think a lot of people find turtles on trails, and then decide, like, oh, I'll take this home, and not only is that illegal, it's actually not really great for the turtles; they definitely thrive better in a natural habitat."
Each turtle has been fitted with a tracking device and underwent a health evaluation prior to Wednesday's release.
The turtles will be studied through at least Fall 2027 to understand movement patterns, home range behavior, body condition, and whether soft release protocols — living in outdoor pens for four weeks prior to release — improve rehoming success. The data will help with future conservation efforts.
"We have been working with these other state partners to develop ... a repatriation program that allows us to better understand what are the science-based, evidence-based ways to rehome turtles and allow them to re-acclimate to a new place," O'Neil says. "There's been a lot of understanding that turtles are difficult to rehome because they have very strong homing mechanisms, and they'll try to return to the place that they either were born or lived, and so rehoming has been kind of a struggle."
The rescued turtles that were not released Wednesday will stay in the pens for evaluation. Some are also being released at the Cincinnati Nature Center.
Eastern box turtles are native to Ohio and generally live 25-35 years, though they can live to be more than 100 years old. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources says "the greatest threat to Ohio's box turtles is the thoughtless driver who makes no attempt to avoid running over them as they lumber across the highway."
Other threats include habitat destruction and fragmentation, diseases, and collection for personal use and the illegal pet trade. They're listed as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species as their wild populations — while abundant in some areas — are decreasing overall.
"Box turtles did kind of used to be everywhere. We've been seeing a decline in populations over time," O'Neil says. "They're not technically threatened or endangered, but our goal is to never let them get there."
At more than 600 acres, the zoo's Warren County farm includes a native plant program, wetland restoration, a cheetah run area, a sheep farm, and is where the zoo grows food for some of its animals. The secure property is monitored with trail and security cameras, and is only open to the public on certain occasions.
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