If you love turtles and you want to do something good and useful, than you should really check this opportunity. Volunteers are needed to help conserve and protect the Olive Ridley Turtles in the beautiful Drake Bay and Ganado playa at the South-eastern Costa Rican coast.
Sound awesome right?! All you need to do is to take long walk on the beach during the night and help preserve the turtles nests. Check out all the details in this article.
Here are some background information:
“The rapid disappearance of sea turtles on the beaches is the reason why this project was initiated in 2006. The low nesting numbers of the Olive Ridley Turtle (Lepidochelys olivácea) raised the alarm. Pacific Sea turtle populations are critically endangered throughout the world, and this project is working hard to conserve and protect this species in this part of Costa Rica.”
This guy is defiantly not a pet! Alligator Snapping Turtles has an exceptionally powerful bite, the 2nd strongest jaw bite of all the animals in the entire world… So if you happen to meet this turtle be sure to keep your finger away from his jaws.
The Alligator Snapping turtles listed as a threatened species. You can find them in the lakes and rivers of the southeastern USA. They are among the largest fresh water turtles in the world and some males can weigh more than 200 pounds.
They have a really cool hunting technique. They lay down on the bottom of the river or the lake with their mouth open exposing their warm-like tongue and when curious fish or frog come to investigate – SNAPP! The turtle strong jaw close on his prey…
Check out this YouTube video I found, it is form the discovery TV show “dirty jobs”
● Red eared slider turtles natural habitat is in the southern USA, but now you can find them almost everywhere because people released their unwanted turtles pets into the wild (releasing pet into the wild is wrong and can cause spread of diseases and harm the native plants and the habitat, not to mention that some domesticated pet simply lost their ability to feed themselves and they will starve).
● Turtles are a reptiles and just like any other reptiles they are cold-blooded and they need to relay on external heat source, like the sun or a special UVB lighting, to keep them warm.
● Trachemys scripta elegans is their officialscientific name.
● Red eared turtles feeds on plants, small animals and insects. They are omnivores.
● The common red eared sliders is green color with yellow stripes.
● They got their name from the red mark around their ears and their ability to slide.
● As they getting older some of the male become darker and their stripes become fade and some of them may even lose their identifying marked their red patch.
● Females are usually larger than the males
● The male have longer front claws and his tail is also longer and thicker than the female.
● Their mating season is between March and june and the egg laying is between May to July.
● It’s taken an egg 60 to 90 days to hatch. eggs that where laid at the end of the season may spend the winter in the nest and hatch only by spring.
● Each turtles is hatching with the help of his egg-tooth, that will fall out an hour after and never grow back.
● When hatching from the egg the average red ear slider will be 1 inch and he can grow up to 12 inches
● If sun is not available and the temperature drops they will go into hibernation.
● FDA regulation band the sale of turtles eggs and turtles with carapace length of less than 4 inch.
● If you chose to have red ear slider turtles as your pet, you will need to provide him aquarium with clean water where they can swim and a basking area that will offer sun light or other UVB lamp.
● Red eared slider turtles can live more than 70 years.
I’m hoping you find this info useful! and for even more info please check out this video:
Share with us your tips and knowledge about the Red Eared Slider Turtles.
