Sunday, January 18, 2009
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
DFWTTC @ Dallas Museum of Nature & Science - Thank You
Thank you all for coming to this year's Reptile Fest.
It was fun.
It was fun.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Reptile Fest 2008 @ Dallas Museum of Nature & Science
The Reptile Fest is Back! Come and visit our table at this fun event at Dallas Museum of Nature & Science in Fair Park. Email us for coupon for $2 off admission.
See Why It’s Cool to be Cold-Blooded.
See Why It’s Cool to be Cold-Blooded.
They share space with us on every continent except Antarctica. They have scales instead of feathers or hair. They breathe air just like us, but they don’t have an internal heating and cooling system. Who are they? They’re reptiles! And at the MNS we think they’re so amazing they deserve their own special event—an entire weekend of spectacularly creepy, crawly, slithery fun with interactive presentations and hands-on activities presented by local experts.
Explore the cool, cold-blooded world of snakes, lizards, turtles, and other reptiles. Touch incredible critters from Texas and around the world. Find out if it’s boa or python, turtle or tortoise, venomous or not. Play a game of reptile hide and seek. Make your own lizard marionette and more!
It’s your chance to learn to love reptiles and leave with a greater understanding and appreciation of how to make sure they’re a part of our lives for millions more years.
When:
Saturday, November 8, 10-5pm
Sunday, November 9, noon-5pm
Where:
MNS Fair Park Campus: Science Building (1318 South Second Avenue) and Nature Building (3535 Grand Avenue)
Cost:
Admission to Reptile Fest is free to MNS members and is included in the general admission price for non-members.
Friday, August 15, 2008
Red Eared Sliders and Environment
Save A Species, Save The Environment
By Lori Green
Director, Turtle Homes Rescue
www.turtlehomes.org
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/petition/602341814
Trachemys scripta is the fancy name for Red Eared Slider.
If you were born before 1975 you may remember small turtles sold in dime stores around the country.
These turtles were placed in plastic bowls that had a small island and a plastic palm tree. You fed them dried ants and they lived about a week if you were lucky.
In 1975 the Federal Government recognized the dangers these turtles possessed. Children would often handle them, place them in their mouths and contracted salmonella, an intestinal bacteria that causes severe diarrhea, dehydration and electrolyte imbalance. In severe cases even death. It became illegal for people to purchase these turtles or any turtle under 4 inches. This posed a devastating blow to the turtle farms that produced them.
Even the 4 inch law did stop them from being sold and today stores such as Petco sell them to the public, who often have no idea what they are getting themselves into. There has been a lot of improvement since 1975. Death bowls are a thing of the past. We now know that all turtles and tortoises process calcium with the help of UVB.
This is light generated by some light bulbs, but the best source is the sun.
There has been huge improvements made in nutrition for these animals as well.
Commercially prepared pellets make up most of the captive slider's diets. Although it is always best to provide them with a more natural diet of fish, bugs, crustaceans, fresh green and snails. By providing a clean environment, which consists of filtered water, varied diet, calcium and UVB, you can expect to have a healthy animal. This is where things go wrong.
You start out purchasing a small turtle that swims happily in a 20 gallon fish tank. The turtle is young. If all goes right you can expect your turtle to grow and they do rapidly. Females can reach up to 14 inches. This means you will need a much larger setup. The water provided should not be less than 350 gallons. This means your putting a swimming pool in your living room or you need to build it a pond.
Along with it's rapidly growing exterior comes rapidly expanding excrement. In other words, poop. Small commercial filters are made for fish waste and you will soon discover the smell of the tank becomes offending quite rapidly and often the water turns yellow. They never told you this in the pet store.
I am also sorry to say your turtle will never love you.
No matter the species you choose, no matter if it was captive bred or if it has lived in your home for 20 years, it will always choose freedom over you. It is you that will give all the love.
Turtles, especially Red Eared Sliders, bite and they bite hard. They are completely inappropriate pets for small children. They will never enjoy being handled. They will never allow you to play like you can with a dog, cat or bird. They are wild by nature and you can't take the nature out of the turtle.
Given all these facts it is no wonder they end up in animal rescues daily. Most animal rescues do not take in turtles. If they do it is because the agent you are speaking to knows of a specialty rescue that deals only in turtles and tortoises. Specialty rescues that handle reptiles are over run with sliders. We recognize the needs of the animal and most will not place them unless the person owns a pond.
A pond, a turtle, no problem. You can go down to the nearest waterway and know your turtle will be happy. You couldn't be any more wrong. Native turtles live in population areas. When you release your turtle you risk infecting the native animals with any parasite, bacteria or even aggression your turtle brings with it. Your turtle will compete for food, interbreed with the native animals and infect them. Whole populations of wild species have been wiped out of areas due to the release of Red Eared Sliders. Over time the native turtles will be replaced. This is a problem that has happened all over the world. It is illegal to own or possess a Red Eared Slider in Israel due to people releasing them and infecting the native pond turtles there. Instead they euthanize what they seize.
We urge you to think before bringing one of these animals into your home. Will you be able to keep it 40 or more years? Yes, that is the life expectancy of a slider if kept properly. Do you own a securely fenced in pond? Do you live in an area with mild enough winters that the turtle can hibernate safely and not risk the entire pond freezing. These are only some of the questions you need to ask yourself before you bring one into your life. Are your children getting older and will loose interest in taking care of the turtle? Are you at a point in your life when you want to travel? Are you in your child bearing years and will be bringing in a newborn baby. Are you willing to risk salmonella? We only ask you to think before you act.
If you would like to help stop the release of these animals into your area waterways please sign our petition at http://www.thepetitionsite.com/petition/602341814
By Lori Green
Director, Turtle Homes Rescue
www.turtlehomes.org
Monday, June 30, 2008
Inspiring Story - Missouri City, TX rescue mission
Missouri City rescue mission called a success
Volunteers relocate turtles, other reptiles from abandoned golf course
Chronicle Correspondent
Muddy, scratched and bitten - but now happy - a group of reptile-lovers is celebrating the rescue of nearly 100 turtles from the path of bulldozers at a new Missouri City commercial park.
Some four dozen volunteers worked more than three weeks last month to catch and relocate reptiles, fish and other creatures from abandoned golf course ponds at the old Willowisp Country Club. Trammell Crow is redeveloping the 168-acre property at the corner of Fondren Road and Buffalo Run as Lakeview Business Park.
The rescue was launched by a Missouri City employee who couldn’t stand to see the creatures stranded. By the time the effort was over, it had involved not only the city’s Public Works department, but police, parks workers and a half-dozen wildlife groups as well.
“I really had no idea it would mushroom the way it did,’’ said Penny Hornsby, a spatial data analyst with Missouri City’s Public Works Department. “I was so in awe of these people - their passion was so great. It gave you a great feeling to know you were doing something to help.’’
Property developers gave volunteers two weeks for their rescue mission. Volunteers waded through half-drained ponds with nets and their bare hands, rounding up turtles and fish into plastic tubs, and releasing them to nearby waterways. Sean Nolan, senior development manager for Trammell Crow, said the company was happy to help, once the city called about the stranded turtles. “We do have a corporate mission to exercise environmental stewardship,’’ Nolan said. “Basically, our role here was just being cooperative.’’ Volunteers logged at least seven turtle species, 22 alligator gar up to 2 feet long, and some 26 non-native plecostomous sucker fish up to 18 inches. The fish, possibly pet shop rejects, could not be released in the wild and ended up in a private pond. At one point, Missouri City police stopped traffic on nearby Buffalo Run, as a “mass exodus’’ of turtles staged their own relocation across that road to the lakes of Buffalo Run Park. Rounding up the stragglers from ankle- and knee-deep pond muck at the old golf course was a messy job.
“You were basically crawling around in mud, getting bitten by fire ants and scratched by pine cones,’’ said Gina Disteldorf, a Spring Branch high school biology teacher. “I was just completely filthy, basically from under my arms on down. I had mud in places there shouldn’t have been mud.’’ Hornsby said she first noticed the reptiles in early May during a picnic lunch at Buffalo Run Park. A construction inspector saw her rescue a turtle that was crossing the road and mentioned that other creatures were in danger as Lakeview development progressed and the old ponds were bulldozed. “Of course this upset me,’’ said Hornsby, who describes herself as “a huge animal lover’’ with five dogs. “I just think it’s important to not only have the environment, but also the little creatures that live there.’’
After Missouri City Public Works Director Scott Elmer secured permission from Trammell Crow, Hornsby and helpers made wire traps, baited them with chicken legs, and placed them around the old county club’s 10 or so interconnected ponds. Over the course of several weeks, they made twice-daily visits to check those traps and relocate whatever they caught. A member of Hornsby’s vegan group with whom she’d been sharing the turtles’ plight offered to post her request for help with a local turtle organization. When Disteldorf, a Gulf Coast Turtle and Tortoise Society member, read that distress call, she forwarded it to the Houston Turtlers, the Texas Area Reptile Enthusiasts, the East Texas Herpetological Society and the Texas Wildlife Rehabilitation Coalition. Over one weekend in May, 17 people one day and 12 the next showed up to help. Volunteers - adults and children - returned the next weekend. All total, they plucked 92 turtles from the ponds, including cooters, red- and yellow-eared sliders, common and alligator snapping turtles and softshell and musk turtles. “It was mind-blowing how into turtles and how up to their armpits in that muck those people were,’’ Hornsby said. “They didn’t care how filthy the water was. They just started getting in there and pulling the animals out.’’
Volunteers were impressed by the developer’s and construction workers’ willingness to cooperate. “This developer was super awesome and gave us a time frame to do what we could,’’ said Disteldorf. “Most developers don’t want anybody on the property. This one was super about letting us go in and work.’’ On one day, workers with a backhoe joined in, she said. “One of their guys got inside the bucket and used one of the nets to catch stuff. That was pretty cool.’’ Hornsby was also touched when one of the burly construction workers, Sidney Oliver, an earthwork contractor for Trammel Crow, brought her a box containing a mother duck and 11 newly hatched ducklings he had been guarding. The feathered family found a new home at a city park. “It was really sweet because he was so gentle and kind,’’ Hornsby said.
Hornsby thanked her Missouri City Public Works co-workers for helping, and her bosses for allowing her time to check turtle traps during the work week. She was amazed by the interest from so many different groups. “We were thinking, `We’re only city employees. We’re only a few people.’ “But once you realize there are groups out there, that this is their passion, all you have to do is make a call.’’
As for the volunteers, they had fun in the mud. “There was a lot of camaraderie,’’ Disteldorf said. “You’re rescuing things, and it makes you feel good.’’
Friday, May 23, 2008
Celebrate World Turtle Day - May 23, 2008
May is a busy month for turtles. Turtles wake up from hibernation and it's time for mating, migrating, nesting, and babies. Therefore in 2000, May 23 was designated World Turtle Day.
Spring and early summer is a time of turtle nesting and babies. You can see turtles walking on the road or turtle hatchlings around local ponds and creeks. However cute they look and no matter how much your child wants to pick them up and take them home it’s not a good idea.
Turtles—sea, freshwater, or terrestrial—are the favorite animals of many people. These attractive creatures continue to beat incredible odds to survive in today’s world of increasing pet and food trade, pollution and shrinking habitat. Please, read some suggestions on how you can help those beautiful and important little creatures, which have been part of our ecosystem for a long, long time on our website:
10 Things to Do for Turtles
http://dfwturtletortoiseclub.blogspot.com/2007/08/10-things-to-do-for-turtles.html
DFW Turtle & Tortoise Club is volunteer based and thrives on donations.
We provide great community for local turtle enthusiasts and people interested in turtles and tortoises. We educate public, provide consultations about captive care and wildlife rescue in cooperation with other wildlife and turtle organizations. We also offer educational presentations for schools, museums, and youth groups. Feel free to contact us for more information.
There are different ways to donate:
You can purchase fun T-shirts and other items at
www.petisnotarock.com
Or you can send donation through our website
www.dfwttc.org
or directly via www.paypal.com to
petisnotarock@yahoo.com
Thank you for your support.
Sincerely,
Barbara Dillard
Director of the DFW Turtle & Tortoise Club
www.dfwttc.org
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/DFWTurtleandTortoiseClub/
Support Our Turtle Club
www.petisnotarock.com
Get Your Turtle Club T-shirts & Celebrate World Turtle day
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