Releasing Turtles into the Wild

Have you ever seen any animals kept in overcrowded conditions at a Pet Shop?? Most Pet Shops are very conscientious and try very hard to treat animals in a humane manner.

However, there are exceptions to every rule. But what can I do about it? A complaint to the Health Department might get some action. On the other hand, the Pet Store may be in compliance anyhow, or the overcrowded or unsanitary condition may have been resolved by the time it is investigated.

So if you could afford it, would you love to buy all the animals in stock and free them? For captive-born creatures like hamsters, snakes, dogs, cats, etc. it would be extremely deadly for the animals if they were just released at the local park.

But what about critters like Iguanas and Turtles?? You would think that if a bunch of large pet store stock turtles that were indiginous to the area were released back into a local lake that there could be no damage to the critters or the people?

It is a romantic notion to what to free animals that seem to be neglected, however most creatures lose their ability to compete in the wild once they have been living in a small aquarium or cage for a few months.

Once they lose a step, catching wild fish or other food may almost be impossible. So instead of liberating them from neglect, they become tourists in a wild environment where they do not belong. Either they slowly starve, or they get sick or they are eaten by faster and stronger wild creatures. So releasing our reptile friends back into the wild is not a responsible option.

The other possible repercussion is that turtles and other reptiles can pick up illnesses and parasites from other turtles and reptiles that they were penned together with. The cross-infecting of species is a major problem caused by the Pet Trade.

So if you release formerly captive reptiles into the wild, and they were infected with an illness that is native to another type of turtle or reptile, then that infection can spread to the local indiginous species of turtles or reptiles causing what amounts to be a plague. Therefore releasing captive animals is not good because the cure can be much worse than the problem.

The least likely possible repercussion is that you are caught in the act by a Game Warden or Forest Ranger. In most localities it is illegal to release any captive animal into the wild. So if you ever see a bunch of critters that you want to save from neglectful treatment, the only thing you can do is make space at your home and adopt one or two if you are sure that you can support them and are dedicated to giving them quality attention, care, housing, and food.

Turtle Bowl set-up

Traditional set-up for first-timers requires daily water changes, and anti-chlorination. Keeping the water clean is the most important thing that you can do when it comes to these small turtle bowls.

The other thing to consider is that the water level is very shallow. So you cannot leave these bowls out in the sun very long or the turtles will dehydrate or sunstroke to death since they don't have any shade and the water will get very warm on a hot summer day.

Baby Snapping Turtles

Baby Turtles are harder to keep healthy.

Death of a baby Mud Turtle

I was very fortunate to find a pet store that had a baby Mud Turtle in the summer of 2003. It was purely an accident. As often happens when you are not looking for something is when you find it. Mud and Musk Turtles are not kept at most pet stores because I believe that they are harder to care for and also less colorful. The brownish or black shells of the Mud and Musk Turtles probably make them less attractive than the colorful Sliders, Painted Turtles, and similar breeds. So I was knocked out when I saw this small rectangular light brown little turtle. I immediately called for a staff member to bag the turtle, as if there were suddenly going to be a rush of interested buyers. The little gal (very short tail) was kind of shy, always hiding under the various aquarium ornaments. But she thrived.

She gradually got bigger, and then we moved to a new home, and after the move the aquarium was set-up again. A few days later the little Mud Turtle was gone. I looked all over the aquarium and turned over the various bridges and artificial rock formations. No turtle. I thought maybe he had somehow climbed out. I searched around the house and under the furniture. No Turtle. After another day, I decided to take out every piece of aquarium furniture (ornaments, rocks, bridges) and check it. These plastic resin bridges and rock formations are hollow-molded so they are lighter and cheaper to produce. Most of them have holes in the bottom at their base. I pulled out each piece, let the water drip out, and then checked the hole in the base. When I got to the rock formation, it was too dark to see all the way in, but when I shook it there was something wedged in there. Sadly, it was not a rock. I could not shake it loose, so I got a screwdriver and pulled the plastic resin rocks apart, and in the top layer of plastic rock formation was the little mud turtle. She was dead. Finding an innocent creature dead like that is grim. Drowning inside the hollow of a plastic resin rock formation has to be harsh by any standard.

Apparently she tried to climb all the way up from the inside of the rock formation and she got wedged in. Why had she done this? I am guessing that the stress from the move made the normally shy mud turtle more anxious and nervous, and perhaps when she pushed the rock base up and found the dark hollow, she just wanted to crawl far away from the chaos in the newly set-up tank. Who knows? Anyhow, it was a hard lesson to learn, but I have pulled out anything that has a hollow base which any small turtle can possibly crawl into.