BOSTON -- A group of rare baby turtles will be released Wednesday into a wildlife refuge in Concord.

Bryan Windmiller, an independent ecological consultant, and John Berkholtz, a biologist with Zoo New England, collected baby Blandlings in the wild last fall.

Blandings are black, medium-sized semi-aquatic turtles with a yellow chin and throat that have isolated populations in the state. They grow to about 10 inches in length and can weigh up to three pounds.

Survivorship among first year turtles in the wild is very low, so Windmiller and Berkholtz turned batches of ten over to the New England Aquarium and Zoo New England for a winter of intensive feeding and growth.

Now, about four inches long, the turtles are too large to be on the menu of many of their natural predators. They will be released into the Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge.

Several of the larger turtles will have a tiny radio transmitter glued to their shell so that field biologists can later track them as they explore their preferred habitat of ponds, marshes and low fields.