May 23rd is observed as World Turtle Day by enthusiasts. The Wildlife Center of Virginia is celebrating by finding homes for a special cohort of rescued patients. WMRA's Randi B. Hagi reports.
The Wildlife Center typically admits turtles that have been hit by cars or attacked by dogs. They care for them, treat their injuries, and release them back into the wild. But over the past year, they've taken in a group of turtles that the Department of Wildlife Resources rescued from illegal wildlife traffickers.
CONNOR GILLESPIE: A lot of them come from situations where they were overcrowded and the tubs or whatever sort of enclosure they were in was pretty dirty.
Connor Gillespie is the center's outreach supervisor.
GILLESPIE: We would love to get these turtles back out in the wild where they belong, but traffickers, in most cases, are not willing to share where they found the turtles, and turtles have a very small home range out in the wild. They just don't survive relocation very well.
Four rescued Painted turtles have gone to live at the Tennessee Aquarium, and a couple of Yellow-bellied sliders have taken up residence at the Rockfish Wildlife Sanctuary. But there are still 21 turtles looking for a permanent home at a zoo, aquarium, or other wildlife organization. Gillespie explained that when a wild turtle is captured, it's detrimental to the species as well as the individual.
GILLESPIE: Turtles have a really slow maturation – it takes them a long time to get to reproduction age and then breed. So anytime a turtle … is taken out of the environment like that, it can really impact local populations.
The center advises that if you see a turtle out in the wild that is safe and unharmed, appreciate it from a respectful distance! Take photos, but don't share its location online. And if you find a turtle in the road, carry it across in the direction it's heading. It might just be a female looking for a nesting site for the next generation.
