S. Padre Island, yet again saving Sea Turtles

MenagerieGrl

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Volunteers In Texas Are Saving Thousands Of Cold-Stunned Sea Turtles From The Storm

February 17, 20214:35 PM ET

Volunteers in coastal Texas have rescued thousands of sea turtles from frigid waters and shores during the historic winter storm and are working creatively to house them as much of the region remains without power.

Sea Turtle, Inc., a nonprofit education, rehabilitation and conservation organization in South Padre Island, Texas, has taken in nearly 4,500 sea turtles since Sunday, according to Executive Director Wendy Knight. She told NPR that local volunteers have been retrieving the turtles by boat and on foot and that the organization has been able to accommodate them with assistance from the community, including from the local government and SpaceX, which has a launch site nearby.


"The love and support of people who just want to help things that can't help themselves is overwhelming," Knight said.

As of Wednesday morning, Knight said, the floor of Sea Turtle, Inc.'s facility was covered in bins containing some 500 rescues. The city's Convention and Visitors Bureau donated the use of the South Padre Island Convention Centre, which Knight said is currently housing the other approximately 4,000 in a combination of tarps, kiddie pools and boxes "lined up tip to toe."

Poor babies....
 

Yvonne G

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I saw a blurb about it on the news last night. So many young tortoises. Very scary! I'm assuming the big ones aren't as affected by the cold because of their larger body mass.
 

ZenHerper

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5000.

Sea water helps some, but not at this degree of cooling. Poor kids.

Climate change is a killer of species.
 

Ink

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I watched it on the news. So sad about the turtles, but so kind of people helping them out.
 

MenagerieGrl

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Ya, I couldn't believe the picture of the convention center with them all, Big & little all laid out. Took over the WHOLE floor.
Make me wanna cry for them.
And the article mentions 4000 of them...OMG, what a herculean effort to save them.
 

m irwin

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So many thanks to those people working to save these turtles. Ya'll are awesome!
 

wellington

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The wild life is what worries me with the way the weather is affecting texas. I sure hope they can get enough volunteers to save them all along with all the other wildlife. Bad enough the flora that might not make it.
Sure hope @tortadise and all his tortoises are able to get thru this too.
 

Aloysius Taschse

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Hopefully they make it out alive. Some might say we shouldn't help because it's "natural selection" but honestly humans are a catalyst for changing climates. The smaller ones are definitely having a rougher time due to the square cube law. Good luck turtles! (And cold tortoises wherever who might be).
 

tortadise

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The wild life is what worries me with the way the weather is affecting texas. I sure hope they can get enough volunteers to save them all along with all the other wildlife. Bad enough the flora that might not make it.
Sure hope @tortadise and all his tortoises are able to get thru this too.
It was brutal. Never had cold
Like that down there since the freeze of 1983. Lost a lot of plants but all the birds, turtles and tortoises are all just fine. Saturday we hit 81 as usual.
 

wellington

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It was brutal. Never had cold
Like that down there since the freeze of 1983. Lost a lot of plants but all the birds, turtles and tortoises are all just fine. Saturday we hit 81 as usual.
Oh so very happy all is okay. Hopefully if not all some of the plants will come back. They are easily replaceable. The rest of you are not.
 

MenagerieGrl

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tortadise

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So, I'm also into Birds, Was sent this from IBR...
The birds did fantastic. We only took in 2 inside. One 80 year old yellow nape Amazon and the conure. Almost took in the kings parrot. The kings is high elevation Papuan species that species we have is 60-70 years old as well. Blind and very sensitive. But it’s mate perished from stress and handling. So we covered north wind and hoped for the beat. Kings did great. Still going strong. Birds are a million times different than reptiles. IF they have a few cold winters and true two seasons with very prescriptive diets they can weather very cold. Birds are odd creatures. Even with some plucked they can survive with proper fats added (during the correct time of season of course) Diet. They have winter and summer coats. We certainly were very worried. I didn’t get much sleep for a week checking on turtle buildings propane heaters and birds.
 

MenagerieGrl

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The birds did fantastic. We only took in 2 inside. One 80 year old yellow nape Amazon and the conure. Almost took in the kings parrot. The kings is high elevation Papuan species that species we have is 60-70 years old as well. Blind and very sensitive. But it’s mate perished from stress and handling. So we covered north wind and hoped for the beat. Kings did great. Still going strong. Birds are a million times different than reptiles. IF they have a few cold winters and true two seasons with very prescriptive diets they can weather very cold. Birds are odd creatures. Even with some plucked they can survive with proper fats added (during the correct time of season of course) Diet. They have winter and summer coats. We certainly were very worried. I didn’t get much sleep for a week checking on turtle buildings propane heaters and birds.
Happy Birthday...

Tortadise:tort:☀?
 

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