Littleredfootbigredheart
Well-Known Member
I went to an animal conservation park Sunday as a belated birthday trip out. I’d been years ago and really enjoyed it, all the animals are really well taken care of with lovely spacious enclosures, and it was cool listening to the work they do behind the scenes.
They didn’t have any tortoises when I went. I purposely looked for places that don’t have them for my birthday trip, ultimately I know I’m likely to see stuff I don’t want to when it comes to tortoise care here, I want to avoid it. I really wished I’d double checked their socials as it’d been so long, because unfortunately they did have tortoises this time, whilst I’ve seen much worse, there were still multiple red flags that kind of took a shine off the whole day
I couldn’t see any water in any of the tortoise enclosures, no self soaking areas, they were mixing species, there were some radiateds in with an Aldabra, two sulcatas in with an Aldabra, according to their socials they have 3 male red foots, but I could only see two on my visit, one was mounting the other the whole time, apparently they’ve had the red foots since they were quite young so that pyramiding has mostly happened under their care unfortunately.
These are the red foots, I think these probably bummed me out the most because they were housed on the floor of the enclosure that housed a small monkey species, which is a bad idea for multiple reasons. I couldn’t see any food available to them or a soaking area, or water at all for that matter(perhaps there was a dish I couldn’t see)
There’s a male and female sulcata pair, housed with an Aldabra, you can only see one in my photos but I will say the sulcatas did look in good condition, they say they were a decent size when they arrived there, but have apparently grown in their care, their shells are virtually smooth, I feel like they probably got them fully grown personally, apparently they’re around 35years old. Downside is the fact it’s a pair mixed with an Aldabra, I couldn’t see any areas to access water. The fencing looked very flimsy, they have gone through them before apparently, but are locked away at night, I don’t see them escaping the park, but better boarders wouldn’t go amiss
Their controlled heat area apparently have patio heaters, least they aren’t heat bulbs for the larger torts, they’re taken to an indoor facility during winter.
These are some of the radiateds and the other Aldabra. The radiateds look in pretty good condition too, but the fact they were in with an Aldabra made me nervous and there wasn’t nearly enough room for all of them
I believe they said they’ve had the Aldabra's since young, and they’re around 7 years old, the back scutes on this one look concerning and the pyramiding isn’t great to see for a conversation centre
The only foraging available was the short grass, all their plants looked virtually untouched so I’m guessing they don’t like grazing the ones in with them, there wasn’t any other food available that I could see, I won’t speculate on the quality of their diets, it could be fine, but there wasn’t a variety of stuff for them to munch on if they wanted during the day.
When looking through their videos about the tortoises online, there’s both some ok stuff and questionable information, which again is disappointing for a conservation place.. I might give them an email, maybe they’ll answer some of the concerns.
Places like this are a tricky one because ultimately, these tortoises are in a better setting than your average uk keeper could house these species, especially with the right tweaks. But on the flip side they’re still clearly lacking/behind on some care practices, which is then giving the public the wrong ideas&information, thus perpetuating the problems in captive tortoise care further
They had some European pond turtles too, but I know very little about aquatic turtles, it looked ok to my untrained eye
They didn’t have any tortoises when I went. I purposely looked for places that don’t have them for my birthday trip, ultimately I know I’m likely to see stuff I don’t want to when it comes to tortoise care here, I want to avoid it. I really wished I’d double checked their socials as it’d been so long, because unfortunately they did have tortoises this time, whilst I’ve seen much worse, there were still multiple red flags that kind of took a shine off the whole day
I couldn’t see any water in any of the tortoise enclosures, no self soaking areas, they were mixing species, there were some radiateds in with an Aldabra, two sulcatas in with an Aldabra, according to their socials they have 3 male red foots, but I could only see two on my visit, one was mounting the other the whole time, apparently they’ve had the red foots since they were quite young so that pyramiding has mostly happened under their care unfortunately.
These are the red foots, I think these probably bummed me out the most because they were housed on the floor of the enclosure that housed a small monkey species, which is a bad idea for multiple reasons. I couldn’t see any food available to them or a soaking area, or water at all for that matter(perhaps there was a dish I couldn’t see)
There’s a male and female sulcata pair, housed with an Aldabra, you can only see one in my photos but I will say the sulcatas did look in good condition, they say they were a decent size when they arrived there, but have apparently grown in their care, their shells are virtually smooth, I feel like they probably got them fully grown personally, apparently they’re around 35years old. Downside is the fact it’s a pair mixed with an Aldabra, I couldn’t see any areas to access water. The fencing looked very flimsy, they have gone through them before apparently, but are locked away at night, I don’t see them escaping the park, but better boarders wouldn’t go amiss
Their controlled heat area apparently have patio heaters, least they aren’t heat bulbs for the larger torts, they’re taken to an indoor facility during winter.
These are some of the radiateds and the other Aldabra. The radiateds look in pretty good condition too, but the fact they were in with an Aldabra made me nervous and there wasn’t nearly enough room for all of them
I believe they said they’ve had the Aldabra's since young, and they’re around 7 years old, the back scutes on this one look concerning and the pyramiding isn’t great to see for a conversation centre
The only foraging available was the short grass, all their plants looked virtually untouched so I’m guessing they don’t like grazing the ones in with them, there wasn’t any other food available that I could see, I won’t speculate on the quality of their diets, it could be fine, but there wasn’t a variety of stuff for them to munch on if they wanted during the day.
When looking through their videos about the tortoises online, there’s both some ok stuff and questionable information, which again is disappointing for a conservation place.. I might give them an email, maybe they’ll answer some of the concerns.
Places like this are a tricky one because ultimately, these tortoises are in a better setting than your average uk keeper could house these species, especially with the right tweaks. But on the flip side they’re still clearly lacking/behind on some care practices, which is then giving the public the wrong ideas&information, thus perpetuating the problems in captive tortoise care further
They had some European pond turtles too, but I know very little about aquatic turtles, it looked ok to my untrained eye
