We may be seeing some more turtle friends crossing our SouthCoast roads for the next few weeks and we found out why.

It's nesting season.

What does that mean? We spoke with Bob Prescott, sanctuary director emeritus at Mass Audubon.

Prescott said mating and nesting season for turtles started in May and will likely continue through July.

"Some turtles, especially the more fussy box turtle, will travel miles to find a dry and sunny spot to lay their eggs,"  Prescott said. "This means that we will most likely catch a turtle or two trying to cross our roads."

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In proper turtle form, they won't be moving fast, so we should be able to spot them.

What are we supposed to do if we see a turtle crossing? "Help them cross the street," Prescott said.

Obviously, only if it's safe to do so, pick them up and help them to the other side.

"Please give a second look to anything that looks like a rock or a dried leaf," Mass Audubon Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary said in a Facebook post earlier this week. "At this time of year, it could be a turtle."

The sanctuary says people who help turtles across the road to a safe area are "turtle heroes," so there's a cool title.

On average, turtles will lay between 20 to 30 eggs. More than half won't survive, so these turtles will need any chance they can get to nest.

Courtesy Kim Novino
Courtesy Kim Novino
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One fun fact that I didn't know is that some turtles will live as long as 50 years and will mate and nest their entire lives. Some will nest more than once a year.

Endangered Sea Turtles Released Back into Atlantic Ocean

The Mystic Aquarium Animal Rescue Team saw another set of rehabilitated animals returned to their ocean home recently with the release of five endangered sea turtles down in North Carolina.
One loggerhead sea turtle and four Kemp’s ridley sea turtles were the aquarium's part of a 26-sea-turtle release from four different animal rescues across the Northeast. See these endangered animals as they returned to their ocean home after months of treatment for their cold-stunning damage suffered in Cape Cod Bay.

LOOK: Here are the pets banned in each state

Because the regulation of exotic animals is left to states, some organizations, including The Humane Society of the United States, advocate for federal, standardized legislation that would ban owning large cats, bears, primates, and large poisonous snakes as pets.

Read on to see which pets are banned in your home state, as well as across the nation.

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