The Elusive Search for the Stinkpot Turtle The stinkpot or Musk
turtle, threatened in Canada. Photo: Stéphanie Gagnon © Her
Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada. -- Click to enlarge
Imagine slowly paddling your canoe on a cool summer evening. All
around you, nature is teeming with life. Beavers, bats and fish
are going about their business. Suddenly, the light from your
flashlight catches a furtive shadow in the water below you: a
small, round silhouette is slowly swimming away through the dead
vegetation. You grab your dip net and gently scoop up the little
creature, which gives off a faint skunk-like smell as it
struggles to escape. There’s no doubt about it - it’s a stinkpot
turtle, one of the rarest animals in Canada! This is just what
happened to a team of biologists working together in the summer
of 2007 on the Ottawa River, about 100 km upstream of Gatineau,
Quebec. Biologists from Environment Canada’s Canadian Wildlife
Service, the Quebec Department of Natural Resources and
Wildlife, and the Nature Co