The Ontario Turtle Conservation Centre runs Ontario’s only CVO (College of Veterinarians of Ontario) accredited, dedicated wild turtle hospital in Canada, treating and rehabilitating turtles injured by vehicle strikes and other threats, then releasing them back to their home wetlands. In 2024, OTCC moved into a newly completed state-of-the-art facility situated on 100-acres; this represents a major milestone that will expand the hospital, teaching, and public education capacity for years to come.

In 2024, OTCC admitted 2,300 injured turtles, including 234 from the Eastern Georgian Bay Region, and released 5,011 recovered turtles back to their home wetlands. 478 turtles including recovered turtles from 2024 and the previous year as well as hatchlings were released within the Eastern Georgian Bay Region. Nearly 9,000 eggs were harvested from injured females and incubated, with headstarted hatchlings released the following spring to help offset losses from road mortality which is a program supported province-wide by more than 1,500 Turtle Taxi volunteers, 116 active turtle care volunteers, and a hotline that fielded over 10,000 calls.

Throughout the year, OTCC trained and supported more than 45 First Responder veterinarians across the province, provided ongoing mentorship to wildlife rehabilitation centres, and shared best-practice resources, including a guide accepted for publication in the North American Wildlife Rehabilitation Journal. Through the Ontario Turtle Conservation Network, OTCC connected dozens of organizations for shared learning, including workshops on nest excavation and road ecology. OTCC also built new partnerships with Animex International and Eco-Kare International to advance road mortality mitigation projects such as ecopassages, and wildlife fencing using turtle admission data to help identify priority locations and continued to share this data with research partners studying wildlife-vehicle collisions across the province.

In terms of education and community engagement, OTCC reached 12,109 people through 224 educational events in 2024, including 61 school presentations to nearly 6,500 students, and engaged with over 160,000 unique social media users each month. Programming introduced Traditional Knowledge of turtles and conservation alongside topics like nest protection, poaching, and ecopassages, and post-event surveys showed strong follow-through as participants reported helping turtles across roads, protecting nests, and reporting injured turtles for care.