World Turtle Day (May 23rd)
Delaware Eastern Box Turtle
(Sheldon)
About World Turtle Day
- The purpose of World Turtle Day, on May 23rd, sponsored by the American Tortoise Rescue, is to bring attention to and increase knowledge and respect for turtles and tortoises, and encourage human action to help them survive and thrive. It is celebrated around the globe in a variety of ways, from dressing up as turtles or wearing green summer dresses, to saving turtles caught on highways, to research activities.
Sheldon and the Hawk
It must have been a scary flight for this baby Eastern box turtle. I found this little one on the top of a fence post towards the back of my yard. How did it get on top of a high fence post? Shortly before I found it, I saw a huge white / gray spotted bird (some type of a hawk) that was standing on top of the fence post, stepping and pecking at something. As I walked back to see what the bird was doing, it quickly flew away. When I got closer, I saw a tiny sized baby box turtle hiding inside of it's shell just sitting on top of the post. It was no bigger than the size of a .50 cent piece, so small! That bird might have picked up the turtle at the pond down the street. There was some minor damage to the turtle's shell, likely from being pecked at. I ran to the house, grabbed a pair of work gloves and headed back to get it off of the post. This little one was so cute that I had to come up with a name for that face, it was Sheldon.
I called a friend to tell her about the incident. She told me that she knew someone who raised rescued box turtles and that they would be happy to take him in!
In the meantime, I placed the baby turtle in a container with some grass, water and a couple of small earth worms (which were quickly gobbled up). Sheldon was so cooperative that we ended up having a small photo and video shoot. The next day, my friend stopped by to pick up the box turtle and we took several more pictures before it's departure.
Over the next several months, I asked about Sheldon - the baby box turtle was growing bigger and doing well :)
