Dozens of turtles could be roaming around Rock Island after water drained from their home pond at Augustana College.
Physiology professor Tim Muir has been catching, marking, and tracking turtles in the slough on campus for nearly ten years now.
The probable end to that population study came Saturday, when a city pipe at the bottom of the slough burst, and nearly all of the water drained.
Muir says the turtles will now look for new homes.
"Some species of turtles we know can look at the sky and see light reflected off of a body of water and it somehow changes the quality of light in the sky and so they can kind of navigate toward that to find water."
He says anyone who spots a turtle in the street should carry it in the direction it's headed.
A spokesman for Augustana College says the accident caused minor damage to a few buildings. The school is working with the city to identify what happened to the pipe.