Dozens of threatened soft-shell turtles were released into the South Quebec River on Saturday as part of a project to help save the species.

The Granby Zoo, east of Montreal, collects turtle eggs and hatches them in an incubator as a way to protect the nests from the jaws of predators and flooding events.

The zoo's conservation coordinator, Chelsea Paquette, was present at the turtle festival in Pike River, where local families had the opportunity to handle the baby turtles, which are only weeks old, before they slid into the murky waters near Lake Champlain.

The zoo has been releasing turtles for about 15 years, but it hopes to accelerate the pace as it increasingly shifts its focus from keeping animals in captivity to releasing them.

Paquette says the zoo hopes to introduce thousands of individuals into the wild in the coming years, including more species of turtles, bats, and birds, as part of an environmental conservation mission announced earlier this year.

She notes that there are signs that the soft-shell turtle release program is working, but it is a slow process since the juveniles being released today will not be ready to breed for another twelve years or so.