I found this baby turtle stuck under my fence yesterday morning. My dog was barking, which is unusual, so I went over to see what the fuss was all about. I was so excited to see the little turtle because I had just been building a “turtle hut” next to my frog pond. In fact, I was so excited that I wound up with several pics of the turtle from behind, but never got his face!
I have learned that there is an actual World Turtle Day - May 23 each year. I had no idea. I also had no idea that turtles are taken from the wild (at least, here in Texas) and sent overseas for human consumption. Eww. The number of turtles taken from the wild for foreign dinner plates is astonishing! I’ve copied this quote from http://texasturtles.org
In 2007 The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department decided to stop the commercial trade of all turtles in Texas except for Red ear sliders (Trachemys scripta elegans), Snapping turtles (Chelydra serpentina) and both species of the Softshell turtles (Apalone mutica & spinifera). These species are still being harvested from the wild to supply the Asian food trade. Since 1995 more than 10,000,000 turtles have been taken from Texas waters and sold to Asian food markets reportedly from one animal dealer.
Wow. I can’t imagine a walk in the woods or around a lake without turtles. I may be crazy about birds, but I have a true love for all wildlife and will continue to post about the ones I encounter.
This is the turtle hut that I’m building. It is going to get a sandy-sod coating to finish it off.
Is that poison ivy on the fence? Looks like the bathroom decoration at the bird banding site I spoke of in an earlier post 
I found two great sites while learning about my new little buddy. One site is dedicated specifically to box turtles, Box Turtle Partnership of Texas, http://btpt.org. The people there helped me identify “my” turtle as a Three-toed Box Turtle (Terrapene carolina triunguis). I then found another site, a blog as well, called the DFW Turtle & Tortoise Club, at http://dfwturtletortoiseclub.blogspot.com/. This is where I learned about World Turtle Day (May 23).
I’ll sign off today by leaving you with a picture of the actual “ribbon-cutting” event for my turtle hut
