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With less than three months to go until the Oasis ZooRun, participants are lacing up for a race like no other. For 24 years, runners, walkers, families, and nature lovers have come together to support the Toronto Zoo’s work to save wildlife and wild spaces, connect people with nature, and inspire conservation action. This year, every stride and every dollar raised will support something especially meaningful: a state-of-the-art facility for the Blanding’s Turtle Headstart Program in the Toronto Zoo’s new Community Conservation Centre. 

That makes this year’s ZooRun a true double celebration. Participants will help build a brighter future for a globally endangered species while also marking the 13th anniversary of the Toronto Zoo releasing Blanding’s turtles into the wild.

To honour 13 years of conservation success, Oasis ZooRun participants will receive an exclusive race medal featuring Captain Sunshine, a beloved Blanding’s turtle and the inspiring face of the program. Whether you are chasing a personal best or walking with family and friends, this year’s run is a chance to leave a lasting footprint on local wildlife recovery.

Meet the Captain 

Captain Sunshine is an ambassador Blanding’s turtle at the Toronto Zoo who helps connect guests with local turtle conservation at outreach events. If you have attended one of the Zoo’s in-person Adopt-A-Pond events, you may already have met him. Previously kept as a pet in the United States, he cannot be safely released into the wild. Today, he joins Zoo staff at outreach events, where he helps guests learn more about turtles, species at risk, and the conservation efforts protecting them. 

Captain Sunshine has full choice and control over his participation in outreach, and his handlers closely monitor his behaviour to support his welfare. When he is not delighting guests with his sunny personality and helping raise awareness for species-at-risk turtles, he enjoys snacking on worms and basking in his tank. 

13 Years of Releasing Blanding’s Turtles into the Wild 

On June 29, the Toronto Zoo released 58 juvenile Blanding’s turtles into Rouge National Urban Park, marking the 13th year of releases through the Blanding’s Turtle Headstart Program. Since 2014, the program has released 600 headstarted turtles, helping support the recovery of a species that is both ecologically important and deeply imperilled. 

Blanding’s turtles are native to southern Ontario wetlands, including marshes and swamps, where they help maintain healthy ecosystems by controlling insect populations and acting as “janitors of the wetland” by eating carrion.  

Today, Blanding’s turtles are federally and globally endangered. Increased predation in urban areas, poaching, road mortality, and habitat loss and fragmentation have taken a serious toll on wild populations. In the Rouge River Watershed, monitoring showed fewer than 10 adult turtles remained by 2012, leaving the population functionally extinct. To help reverse this decline, the Toronto Zoo’s Adopt-A-Pond program, now part of the Field Conservation team, launched a long-term effort to improve juvenile turtle survival and support recovery in Rouge National Urban Park. 

This year’s 13th release anniversary adds another meaningful connection: in many Indigenous Nations, the cycles of Grandmother Moon mark the changing seasons, with 13 moon cycles in a year. The pattern of 13 large scutes on a turtle’s shell is often understood as a calendar, reminding us that all things are connected and that we must strive to live in balance. Turtles hold special significance for many Indigenous Nations on Turtle Island (what is now called Canada and the United States), and in many teachings and Creation stories, the turtle plays an essential role, as the Earth is formed on its back. 

A Headstart on Life 

The headstart process begins with the careful collection of Blanding’s turtle eggs from a stable source population in the wild, often from vulnerable nests near construction sites and roads. The eggs are then brought to the Toronto Zoo and placed in two incubators, each set at different temperatures. Eggs incubated at higher temperatures tend to produce female hatchlings, while cooler temperatures tend to produce males. By using both, the Zoo team can support a roughly 60 percent female and 40 percent male split, an optimal ratio for future reproduction. 

When the turtles hatch, they are about the size of a toonie with relatively soft shells, making them especially vulnerable to predators in the wild. Under the care of the Zoo’s Wildlife Care and Field Conservation teams, the turtles are raised for two years before being released into Rouge National Urban Park. The objective of the project is to release at least 50 headstarted turtles each year until 2034, a 20-year period. 

At the time of release, the turtles are roughly the size of a baked potato and two to three times larger than wild turtles of the same age. That extra growth gives them a better chance of surviving in the wild – a true headstart on life! 

Long-term Monitoring and Research

The Toronto Zoo’s involvement does not end with the release. A subset of the headstarts have radio transmitters affixed to their shells, allowing for regular tracking in the wild  through radiotelemetry. The data collected from this monitoring allows the Zoo’s Field Conservation team to learn how the Blanding’s turtles are faring in their new wetland habitat and make improvements to the program as needed.  

Working with academics and graduate students from across the Greater Toronto Area, the Zoo has conducted research evaluating the success of the program thus far. The findings have shown an average survival rate of over 85 percent across all cohorts that have been released, and the headstarted Blanding’s turtles tend to have better body condition than their wild counterparts. A recently published paper also revealed that continued headstarting efforts can support the establishment of a sustainable Blanding’s turtle population within the next 20 years, a promising prospect for the recovery of the species more broadly.  

The Field Conservation team also regularly monitors several adult Blanding’s turtles in Rouge National Urban Park through tracking and nesting surveys. The Zoo recently shared the first evidence of these turtles reproducing independently in the wild after discovering a headstart turtle released into the Rouge in 2015 has eggs!  

Collaboration and Community  

The Blanding’s Turtle Headstarting program relies on the generosity of our dedicated donors and the support of partners, including Parks Canada and the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO).  

Community engagement is also essential to the success of this program. Events like the Oasis ZooRun and ambassadors like Captain Sunshine help bring turtle conservation to life for guests, creating memorable opportunities to learn about species at risk and the actions people can take to protect them. 

How You Can Help 

Beyond raising awareness, you can actively help the Toronto Zoo’s Field Conservation team fight extinction! By reporting turtle sightings through the Zoo’s Ontario Turtle Tally project, you contribute directly to ongoing efforts to monitor Blanding’s turtle populations and other at-risk species across the province. 

And, while the in-person Oasis ZooRun is sold out, you can still participate virtually! Join us today and help reach our goal of raising $110,000 to support the creation of the new Community Conservation Centre, the dedicated future home of the Blanding’s Turtle Headstart Program. 

You can also support by donating to a ZooRun participant’s personalized fundraising page or by visiting our website. Together, we can help build an engaging, interactive, and inspiring place of learning—where people of all ages can connect with nature and take action for wildlife.