Category: turtle

Man tries to smuggle turtle onto plane by hiding it in a hamburger

On By A.P.In China, Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport, Nature, turtleLeave a comment

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A man tried to smuggle his pet turtle through security in Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport by hiding it in a KFC hamburger.

The incident occurred on the morning of July 29, when a man, surnamed Li, was about to board China Southern Airlines flight 345 to Beijing, Guangzhou Daily reported. As Li passed through airport security, X-ray screening machines detected a few “odd protrusions” sticking out of a KFC burger that the man had packed in his bag.

Airport staff determined that the protrusions looked suspiciously like turtle limbs, and asked to inspect Li’s luggage.

“There’s no turtle in there, just a hamburger,” Li reportedly insisted. “There’s nothing special to see inside.”

Li finally acquiesced to an inspection after repeated requests from airport staff, who uncovered the pet turtle hidden inside the burger. When asked why he had devised this strange idea, Li said that he had only wanted to travel together with his “beloved” turtle.

After staff patiently explained that turtles could not be smuggled on board the plane, Li reluctantly agreed to allow a friend to care for his pet while he was away.

http://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1293310/man-tries-smuggle-turtle-plane-hiding-it-hamburger

Human wall formed to help guide baby loggerhead turtles to the ocean

On By A.P.In Dr. Sue Willis, loggerhead turtle, Nature, Sea Turtle Conservation Bonaire, turtle2 Comments

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Every year hundreds of baby loggerhead turtles hatch on the beaches of the Caribbean and journey towards the ocean. This year one group of baby turtles on the Dutch-controlled island of Bonair needed a little help.

“This group of baby turtles hatched on a beach next to an airport,” Dr. Sue Willis, the program director of Sea Turtle Conservation Bonaire, told ABC News.

“After the turtles hatch they crawl towards the brightest light they see, which is usually the moon over the ocean. But the airport’s bright lights distract the turtles and make them crawl in the wrong direction. Two years ago we lost an entire group of hatchlings after they crawled onto a busy road,” said Willis.

On July 1, when it was time for the baby turtles to make the trek towards the ocean, Willis and other volunteers used a unique method to ensure that this time the baby turtles reached the ocean safely.

“We created a human wall of sorts,” Willis explained. “We surround the baby turtles on both sides so that they cannot see the airport lights. We give them ample space to crawl and form a line all the way down to the ocean so they stay on path.”

Some 112 baby turtles made it safely to the ocean, but the 113th turtle needed a little more help.

“When it hatched it was a little underdeveloped,” Willis said. “So we took care of it overnight, made sure it could breathe and stay hydrated. On July 2 we placed in the exact same spot it hatched, made our human wall, and helped it get safely to the ocean.”

Loggerhead turtles are an endangered species, threatened by fishing and beach development. Over 400 volunteers at Sea Turtle Conservation Bonair ensure that each year the sea turtles that hatch on Bonair beaches make it to the ocean safely.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2013/07/human-wall-leads-baby-turtles-to-the-ocean/

Pet turtle escapes after 70 years

On By A.P.In Brooklyn, Ed Schloeman, Nature, turtleLeave a comment

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Ed Schloeman’s parents purchased four eastern box turtles in the early 1940s, right around the time Schloeman was born.

When his parents died 15 years ago, the surviving turtle, Willie, went to Schloeman, who still lives in the Windsor Terrace neighborhood he grew up in, and who is now 70 years old.

“When my parents passed away I received that wonderful gift,” he told BuzzFeed.

Schloeman kept Willie, who’s about seven inches long with the species’ distinctive brown and yellow shell, in a “caged environment” in his back yard on East 2nd Street, a sloping street a block from Green-Wood Cemetery. But late last year, Willie vanished.

“He just got out somehow,” said Schloeman, who plastered the neighborhood with “Wanted” flyers, one of which BuzzFeed noticed on the door of the nearby Sean Casey Animal Rescue.

“He’s probably hibernating someplace somehow,” Schloeman, who sells fire suppression systems from his Brooklyn home.

Schloeman, a Vietnam veteran, is also active in a charity that brings Transcendental Meditation to soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress.

“Hopefully if he unhibernates in April, a neighbor will find him,” he said.

Schloeman said Willie has no particular personality, and didn’t appear personally anguished over his disappearance.

“You can’t get close to a turtle,” he said.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/bensmith/turtle-escapes-after-70-years?utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=buzzfeed

College Student’s Turtle Project

On By A.P.In Boy Scouts, Clemson University, Crocodile Hunter, Hal Herzog, Kebmodee, Nathan Weaver, rubber turtle, Some We Eat, Steve Irwin, The Great Santini, turtle, Western Carolina UniversityLeave a comment

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Clemson University student Nathan Weaver set out to determine how to help turtles cross the road. He ended up getting a glimpse into the dark souls of some humans.

Weaver put a realistic rubber turtle in the middle of a lane on a busy road near campus. Then he got out of the way and watched over the next hour as seven drivers swerved and deliberately ran over the animal. Several more apparently tried to hit it but missed.

“I’ve heard of people and from friends who knew people that ran over turtles. But to see it out here like this was a bit shocking,” said Weaver, a 22-year-old senior in Clemson’s School of Agricultural, Forest and Environmental Sciences.

To seasoned researchers, the practice wasn’t surprising.

The number of box turtles is in slow decline, and one big reason is that many wind up as roadkill while crossing the asphalt, a slow-and-steady trip that can take several minutes.

Sometimes humans feel a need to prove they are the dominant species on this planet by taking a two-ton metal vehicle and squishing a defenseless creature under the tires, said Hal Herzog, a Western Carolina University psychology professor.

“They aren’t thinking, really. It is not something people think about. It just seems fun at the time,” Herzog said. “It is the dark side of human nature.”

Jeffrey Collins/AP PhotoClemson University student Nathan Weaver… View Full Size Jeffrey Collins/AP PhotoClemson University student Nathan Weaver holds a fake turtle he is using in his research to try and save the animals, Dec. 12, 2012, in Clemson, S.C.
Herzog asked a class of about 110 students getting ready to take a final whether they had intentionally run over a turtle, or been in a car with someone who did. Thirty-four students raised their hands, about two-thirds of them male, said Herzog, author of a book about humans’ relationships with animals, called “Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat.”

Weaver, who became interested in animals and conservation through the Boy Scouts and TV’s “Crocodile Hunter” Steve Irwin, wants to figure out the best way to get turtles safely across the road and keep the population from dwindling further.

Among the possible solutions: turtle underpasses or an education campaign aimed at teenagers on why drivers shouldn’t mow turtles down.

The first time Weaver went out to collect data on turtles, he chose a spot down the road from a big apartment complex that caters to students. He counted 267 vehicles that passed by, seven of them intentionally hitting his rubber reptile.

He went back out about a week later, choosing a road in a more residential area. He followed the same procedure, putting the fake turtle in the middle of the lane, facing the far side of the road, as if it was early in its journey across. The second of the 50 cars to pass by that day swerved over the center line, its right tires pulverizing the plastic shell.

“Wow! That didn’t take long,” Weaver said.

Other cars during the hour missed the turtle. But right after his observation period was up, before Weaver could retrieve the model, another car moved to the right to hit the animal as he stood less than 20 feet away.

“One hit in 50 cars is pretty significant when you consider it might take a turtle 10 minutes to cross the road,” Weaver said.

Running over turtles even has a place in Southern lore.

In South Carolina author Pat Conroy’s semi-autobiographical novel “The Great Santini,” a fighter-pilot father squishes turtles during a late-night drive when he thinks his wife and kids are asleep. His wife confronts him, saying: “It takes a mighty brave man to run over turtles.”

The father denies it at first, then claims he hits them because they are a road hazard. “It’s my only sport when I’m traveling,” he says. “My only hobby.”

That hobby has been costly to turtles.

It takes a turtle seven or eight years to become mature enough to reproduce, and in that time, it might make several trips across the road to get from one pond to another, looking for food or a place to lay eggs. A female turtle that lives 50 years might lay over 100 eggs, but just two or three are likely to survive to reproduce, said Weaver’s professor, Rob Baldwin.

Snakes also get run over deliberately. Baldwin wishes that weren’t the case, but he understands, considering the widespread fear and loathing of snakes. But why anyone would want to run over turtles is a mystery to the professor.

“They seem so helpless and cute,” he said. “I want to stop and help them. My kids want to stop and help them. My wife will stop and help turtles no matter how much traffic there is on the road. I can’t understand the idea why you would swerve to hit something so helpless as a turtle.”

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/college-students-turtle-project-takes-dark-twist-18076298?page=2

Thanks to Kebmodee for bringing this to the attention of the It’s Interesting community.