Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Yesterday I accompanied our school's 4th graders to the local garden and sculpture park. I was suprised to see a big tank w/ several turtles (RES, common mud, and soft shell).

I was impressed when the guide gave the kids a lecture on keeping turtles as pets. He told them how expensive they were considering their need for a large tank, special lights etc.!

Unfortunately, the guide identified the mud as a blanding's, and one of the RES had pyramiding.

Last night I emailed the gardens and pointed out these things (both the problems, and how impressed I was with the presentation). Today I got a reply. She said she corrected the mis identification of the mud (the guide was new) and the "pyramid" RES was a new aquire. She was aware of the problem. Had not been kept in an adequate tank and now has much better accomadations.

She thanked me for the emailed and complimented my on my "keen eye"!

I was really impressed!
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0.1.0 ornate box turtle
1.0.0 eastern box turtle
0.1.0 Australian shepard
1.9.0 chickens
3.2.0 children (do I still count the married ones?)
1.0.0 husband

That's great! It is a good feeling when you visit a place & find out that the people care. I've been to some private roadside type reptile attractions I guess you'd call them & was appalled by what I saw.
We went to the Austin TX zoo in May last year, which is a real zoo not a roadside attraction. OMG there were tortoises & other reptiles everywhere that looked horrible. At first I thought ewwwww what is going on here?
Then I saw signs posted that stated these animals have been adopted in from the pet trade, they were already a mess when the zoo took them in. I was very impressed by what was going on there when I found out they've saved these animal's lives.
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PHRatz

That is very nice! Maybe a few of those kids will listen