CIRCLE OF LIFE: Seventeen young turtles that had been raised from eggs retrieved from the smashed bodies of mothers that had been killed on roads were released back into the wild.
STONE HARBOR, New Jersey -- The circle of life was on vivid display Wednesday at the Jersey Shore in a way that even the youngest children could understand.
A kindergarten student releases a turtle back into the wild at the Wetlands Institute in Stone Harbor, N.J., Wednesday, June 8, 2022. "We lose 550 adult females each year to road kills," Ferguson said of her area in the southern New Jersey marshlands near the ocean. Aside from caring for injured live turtles, the Wetlands Institute harvests eggs from females killed on the road and incubates them at 30 degrees Celsius, a temperature that will ensure they develop as females .