I celebrated World Turtle Day today by dusting off my collection of 150 turtles given to me by family and friends who joked I was like a turtle for my long neck and for moving around countries every few years with my house on my back.
Recent studies report that more than half of the earth’s turtle and tortoise species is now threatened with extinction, with loss of habitat to agriculture and climate change hitting our gorgeous shelled friends the hardest. While conservationists work towards minimizing their demise, individuals can help by reducing plastic consumption that ends up in the food chain and driving slowly on roads that are turtle/tortoise habitats.
A conservationist tip I remember is that if you see a tortoise crossing a road, you can either ward off oncoming traffic and wait for it to get to the other side, or help it along in the direction it’s going. If you turn the tortoise back to the direction from which it came, apparently it will right itself and start trying to cross the road again. I guess the tortoise isn’t just older than us but wiser, too – and it knows what it’s doing!
Happy World Turtle Day to some of the world’s oldest and most beautiful creatures!
