Posted on: 2018-08-24 10:30:24
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Recent turtle news you may have missed.
As usual sea turtles are nesting & hatching around the world. But these happy stories never get old! Also fun is naming a baby turtle & a birthday party for a really old turtle.
Sadly there’s also turtles trapped in fishing nets & other garbage, or eating plastic. The lucky ones get rescued.
Florida’s red tide is still hanging on. And a few treatment facilities keep trying to help the affected turtles.
Also researchers keep finding new ways to learn as much as possible about all kinds of turtles & how to help them.
Plus much more.
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Recent Box Turtle News
Once again we didn’t find any box turtle news this week. But we did find pictures on Facebook!
So enjoy this closeup of a male Yucatan box turtle. And if you love wildlife, check out the photographer’s Facebook page. Lots of beauty and adorableness there (and some weirdness, too)! 💕
Recent U. S. Turtle News
Sea turtle hatching continues, but the little guys don’t always have it easy. At one port rescuing adults just got easier, though.
Elsewhere researchers are working to better understand how turtles use their environment & how to make nesting easier & safer for mamas and babies. Plus more.
But first, remember to check out the Tour de Turtles to see who’s winning!
And then a very special birthday:
Happy Birthday, Bonecrusher!: The alligator snapping turtle turned 100 recently. The Greensboro Science Center threw him a party, complete with a special birthday meal. Includes short video. (North Carolina)
Plus we now know what to call him (or her) …
Trash can turtle has a name! The baby loggerhead saved from a hotel trash can with 5 siblings has a name! Although the other 5 went home to the sea, this little one will be an ambassador at the Tybee Island Marine Science Center for a while. Includes video. (Georgia)
Sea turtle news
This is why vehicles don’t belong on nesting beaches: A loggerhead hatchling was run over on its way to the sea. Luckily sand is soft & it survived the ordeal. Includes picture. (Florida)
Bright lights still disorienting hatchlings on Anna Maria Island: With just under half the nests hatched, an estimated 2,560 babies have lost their way. 😥
She interrupted her vacation to save a sea turtle: This awesome woman got the turtle near shore & supported it in the water until help came to take it to the Clinic for the Rehabilitation of Wildlife (CROW). Video. Vets later confirmed the turtle had red tide poisoning. (Florida)
Rescuing sea turtles at Port Canaveral just got easier: The Sea Turtle Preservation Society now has a transport vehicle parked at the port. So instead of a 45-minute response time (the drive time from the Society to the port) rescuers can have an injured turtle on its way to a treatment facility within a few minutes.
Disoriented hatchlings found swimming in hotel pool & hot tub: A couple of hotel guests rescued them & released them to the sea. Apparently the hotel may not be using turtle safe lighting? (Florida)
Trying to save turtles from red tide: Only a few places treat turtles poisoned by red tide. CROW and Mote Marine Lab are 2 that do. Includes video & pictures.
Miscellaneous turtle news
Making nesting safer for wood turtles: A program in Wisconsin has created nesting platforms filled with the turtles’ favorite nesting substrate to encourage them to nest there instead of construction gravel pits. The turtles have been using them, and so have other turtle species in the area. 💚
Studying how different turtles use the same environment: Scientists have been studying 3 different turtle species on Medicine Lake in Minnesota. The soft shells use the lake very differently than the snappers & painted turtles. This is important information so we can make sure all turtles have a chance to thrive in the places they call home.
Did “frustrated fishermen” decapitate turtles in Texas? Nobody knows for sure. But that’s one theory on how the turtle heads ended up on a picnic bench at a popular park. 😠 We’d like to suggest you not take it out on the turtles, just because they don’t realize the food you dropped into their homes was meant for catfish.
Car runs over gopher tortoise … deliberately?: Video appears to show the driver stopping & waiting for the tortoise to get into the road before deliberately running over it. 🙁 The man who later turned himself in says it was an accident. If so, it was some supremely unsafe driving & he needs a refresher driving course!
Turtle farmer charged with illegally exporting turtles: He owns a legal farm & can legally export turtles he has bred & raised. But for some reason he has regularly also exported turtles from other farms.
Recent International Turtle News
Lots of international turtle news this week. Some happy, like hatchings! And spotting healthy sea turtles swimming around in the sea. Some sad, like more than 100 dead sea turtle & no idea why.
Several rescues, smugglers stopped, and non-native turtles on the loose too.
Malta sea turtle news
The news out of Malta hasn’t been great lately, with lots of dead & entangled turtles found. But these first 2 stories are sure to please. And the 3rd at least has a happy ending.
Gnejna Bay nest hatches! The precious nest, protected since late June, has finally hatched. And 100 little loggerheads have made it to the sea. 💚 Includes pictures & video. (Malta)
Happy, healthy turtles making Malta happy: Social media posts in the last few days of healthy turtles just being turtles have been welcomed & shared. 💚
Lucky turtle meets kind fishermen: Getting completely tangled in a huge mass of netting was decidedly unlucky. But catching the eye of the fishermen, who worked hard getting every bit of netting off it, was very lucky. Once released, the turtle swam away quickly. 💚 Includes video.
Mexico sea turtle news
Recent news out of Mexico is less good.
5 men arrested for selling sea turtle eggs: Officials also confiscated more than 30,000 olive ridley eggs. That’s 30,000 little turtles that never had a chance to hatch & try to help their species survive. 😥
What killed 113 sea turtles in Mexico? So far we don’t know, and officials are investigating. The turtles were found over a span of 3 weeks across 19 miles of beach.
2 sea turtle nests looted: Officials are investigating. Mexican law makes stealing turtle eggs a crime.
Good nesting news
Cyprus welcomes more nesting sea turtles: Green & loggerhead sea turtles nest on the island. But, like in the rest of the world, humans had hunted them almost to extinction before realizing the turtles were worth saving. And conservation efforts are working, with the number of nests more than tripling since 1978.
Dillon-Lorrain nests again: This is exciting because … 1.) She’s a Blanding’s turtle, and they’re in danger pretty much everywhere. 2.) She hatched from a protected nest some 20 years ago. So she gives hope that those long-ago (and still ongoing) efforts to protect nests are paying off.
It’s been 10 years since a sea turtle has nested on this beach: But last week a green was photographed doing just that! It’s always heart-warming to see turtles returning to long-abandoned beaches. Includes pictures. (Thailand)
Miscellaneous sea turtle news
Baby sea turtles pampered on Bali: The beach at the Ritz-Carlton Bali is part of the Bali Sea Turtle Society’s rescue & release program. Recently 62 little hatchlings got help heading home to the sea. Includes pictures.
Man plucks sea turtle from the water & carries it across the beach: Onlookers filmed the incident, but nobody stopped him. 😨
Giant leatherback dies with stomach full of plastic: Although the plastic didn’t kill it, the stuff did weaken it. Which may have made it susceptible to the pneumonia that did kill it (Malta)
Another leatherback washes up on beach with plastic in its stomach: Sadly it was already dead, most likely from a boat strike. Even though the plastic didn’t kill the turtle, we can’t know that it wouldn’t have eventually. And it’s unacceptable for almost all turtles examined to have this stuff in their stomachs. Warning: Includes pictures. (England)
Sea turtle skeleton with “ghost net” wrapped around shell: No, this isn’t an art creation to showcase the horrors of plastic waste and especially discarded fishing nets. It was a real, live sea turtle that got trapped, died, and then decomposed before a film crew found it on a Queensland, Australia beach. 😰 And it demonstrates the horrors of human-created pollution better than any art ever could.
2 turtles freed from same mass of plastic garbage: Video shows them being lifted into a boat & cut free. The story describes them as a baby turtle & its parent … but of course we know turtles don’t actually parent their babies. So it was just 2 very unlucky turtles together. (Spain)
Philippines’ Department of Environment and Natural Resources introduces new mascot: Pawi, resembling a hawksbill sea turtle, will help promote environmental campaigns and greater awareness of sea turtles.
Other turtle news
International Space Station helps track turtles & other wildlife: Two antennas recently attached to the ISS will receive data from animals’ trackers & send it back to researchers on the ground. This data will hopefully be more detailed than previous space-based tracking efforts.
Snapping turtles should never be found in the wild in the UK: And yet it happens, most recently in a river in Exeter. The turtles are native to North America, so the only way it could have gotten there is with human help.
Red-eared slider on the loose in Canada’s Northwest Territories: The non-native turtle escaped from the SPCA & was thought gone forever. But it was spotted & the SPCA has launched a search and capture mission.
Apparently he just can’t help himself: The man was out on bail in a turtle smuggling case when he was again arrested for smuggling turtles. Sigh. (Central India)
A bad year for Ontario’s spiny soft shell turtles: The Spiny Softshell Turtle recovery project will be able to release only half as many of the endangered turtle’s hatchlings as last year. ☹️
Police shut down largest illegal turtle & tortoise farm in Europe: 1100 animals rescued and 750 eggs confiscated from the farm on the island of Majorca. The “farmers” apparently sold the animals through a pet shop in Barcelona. Includes short video (Spain)