Posted on: 2018-08-31 10:30:33
🐢
Recent turtle news you may have missed.
As August draws to a close turtle news includes a mix of rescues & research.
A couple of boxie stories, even.
And babies. Including little snappers hatched from rescued eggs. 💚
Plus no more commercial trapping of freshwater turtles in Texas.
And of course there’s always a few people who just can’t leave the turtles alone. And not in a good way.
But most of the news this week is good. Enjoy.
🐢
Recent Box Turtle News
This week in boxie news we have a happy homecoming and an old homebody, found pretty much exactly where he was first seen 50+ years ago.
David Beckham is safely back at the zoo: No, not that David Beckham! David Beckham the Florida box turtle who was stolen from the Santa Fe College Teaching Zoo back in May.
70-year-old box turtle comes out to say hi: A brother & sister ran across an old friend in the same field where they 1st saw him back in 1967. 💚
Plus, a look at the wide variety of shapes and colors box turtles come in! From the Garden State Tortoise Facebook page.
Recent U. S. Turtle News
Most of this week’s stories can be summed up pretty simply: People doing good and people doing bad. But more good than bad.
First up, good news for Texas turtles
Texas has banned all commercial freshwater turtle trapping: The Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission vote was unanimous. Wonderful news! 💚
And for Flash’s family
Flash the tortoise is back home safe: But not before having a visit with the town’s mayor & traveling 9 miles in 11 days. Yep, sounds like he deserves his name! (Minnesota)
And for Tina
Tina the turtle’s fundraiser is going strong: Her fans have raised more than $5,000 to get her a new tank and maybe an outdoor enclosure too. Tina lives at the Katonah Village Library in New York.
Unless you’re helping them, please leave the turtles & their eggs alone
Who dug up the sea turtle nest? Alabama officials want to know, and a local sea turtle conservation group has offered a reward.Police have released surveillance video of 4 people entering the area & are asking for help to find one of them.
All 4 people from surveillance video have been ID’d: At least one of them has confessed.
That goes for their signs, too
Someone needed a Turtle Crossing sign more than the turtles: The city of White Plains, NY put the sign up because residents asked for it to help protect the turtles. But it disappeared in less than a week. 😠
Speaking of helping …there’s lots of ways to do it …
Help turtles across the road
Turtles in Guntown, Mississippi get VIP treatment: A local police officer is always on “turtle patrol,” on or off duty. Getting turtles across the road safely is just a routine part of her day … even as many as 5 turtles a day! A big thumbs-up for officer Lucas’ commitment to protecting all residents of her community! 💚
Help babies hatch & survive
New center to help restore populations of threatened aquatic wildlife: The Kansas Aquatic Biodiversity Center hopes to breed and release animals whose populations have declined in area waterways.
From eating them to protecting them: Turtle Joe used to harvest & eat turtles. But for the past 35 years he’s harvested & protected turtle eggs. Then he releases the hatchlings back to their natural habitat, hopefully giving them a better chance at survival. (Wisconsin)
Blandings turtle hatchlings an exciting find: Park officials had earlier protected a different nest in the same area. The babies were moved to a safer area than where they’d hatched. (Minnesota)
Rescued snapping turtles eggs have hatched: The eggs were taken from a mama who had been hit by a car & couldn’t be saved. But most of her eggs hatched & her babies have been released into the wild. Includes pictures (Maine)
Monitor or rescue sea turtles
A day at the beach turns into a turtle rescue mission: The green sea turtle was all tangled in about 2.5 feet of fishing line. Includes video. (Honolulu)
Leatherback sea turtle vs lobster buoy line: With a little help from the Massachusetts Environmental Police and the Center for Coastal Studies the turtle won.
Kemp’s ridley sea turtle rescued from Vermillion Bay in Louisiana: The fisherman who caught it says he’s never seen one before in his 30 years of fishing the bay. Includes video.
Sea turtle monitoring is about more than just monitoring nests: It’s also about collecting lots of data to hopefully learn more about sea turtle behaviors.
Recent International Turtle News
This week we have turtles rescued, turtles in need of rescue, and sadly too many for whom rescue came too late.
River turtles news
Endangered Manning River turtle to get help: A joint effort with Aussie Ark, the Australian Reptile Park, and the Officie of Environment and Heritage aims to create a breeding program to establish an “insurance population” of the pretty little freshwater turtles. This is similar to the existing program for the Bellinger River snapping turtle, which lives in the same general area. (New South Wales)
Fundraiser for Manning River turtle project: Getting a breeding program started takes money, so Aussie Ark and the Australian Reptile Park have started a crowd funding campaign. And there are rewards available, based on your donation level. Possible rewards include bottles ofTipsy Turtle Vodka (a lime-infused vodka), a painting of the turtle, and more.
Upper Bellinger River improvements planned: A recent grant will allow for improvement of the rainforest in the area. This will also help the Bellinger River Snapping Turtles which depend on the rainforest riverbank habitat.
Sea turtle news
Boat shatters loggerhead’s shell: The poor animal was found dead with its shell broken in 3 places. Nature Trust Malta posted pictures on its Facebook page and reminded people to be careful when sailing. Warning: includes pictures at the end of the story.
Studying Gnejna Bay’s recently hatched nest: This is the 2nd successful nest in 3 years. That doesn’t sound like much, but before this it had been decades since a nest hatched at the beach. So Nature Trust wants to learn how many eggs were laid & how many hatched, plus hopefully get DNA to see if the same female comes back to lay again. (Malta)
It literally takes a village to protect local marine life: It also takes time to convince locals to embrace conservation. But then it doesn’t take much time at all for the benefits to become clear.
300 dead sea turtles caught in fishing nets off Mexico’s coast: Officials are hoping some may still be alive, but so far only one has been rescued alive. It’s unclear at this point if it was old, abandoned nets or ones recently launched.
Horrifying mistreatment of a sea turtle on a boat: Warning: Disturbing images … We couldn’t watch the video. The still pictures are bad enough. A “man” rides a sea turtle around the deck of a boat, lifts it up, and drops it twice. Other “men” watched. So far there’s not much information about when & where the video was filmed. We hope the man is identified & punished.
Other turtle news
Reward for runaway turtle in Canada’s Northwest Territories: We shared the story of the escaped red-eared slider last week. He had been spotted at the time, but still hasn’t been captured. Now there’s a $200 reward for anyone who can nab him.
596 pig-nosed turtles headed back home: Officials at the Hong Kong Airport found them in a suitcase. The smuggler has been fined and the turtles are going back to their natural river habitat in Indonesia.
Hundreds of turtles rescued from 2 dams: Almost 500 long-necked turtles have apparently been living in the dams. Nobody knows for how long. Or how they got there. Includes pictures. (New South Wales, Australia)