[Homestead] SE U.S. wild turtle problems?

bobf bobford79 at yahoo.com
Mon Jan 26 06:38:26 EST 2009


Sandy; that is wonderful.  My backyard (and side) is completely walled in -- you know the  phoenix block wall fence deal.  Do you have a link to where I could find a phone number to do such a thing?  It would have to be a turtle who could pull himself into the shell enough to survive the dog, if I were to allow it access to the entire yard.  otherwise, I could fence a small area, I suppose.  Anyway, that is great what you are doing..........

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--- On Mon, 1/26/09, Bunjov at aol.com <Bunjov at aol.com> wrote:

> From: Bunjov at aol.com <Bunjov at aol.com>
> Subject: Re: [Homestead] SE U.S. wild turtle problems?
> To: homestead at lists.ibiblio.org
> Date: Monday, January 26, 2009, 4:30 AM
> It is indeed interesting.
>  
> I am aware of the 'differences' between turtles and
> tortoises.
>  
> I have been 'mommy' to a desert tortoise, courtesy
> of the BLM, for a little  
> over two years. I was given two hatchlings, each the size
> of a nickel. The 
> deal  is, if you can keep them alive for two years, they
> can to be returned to  
> the BLM for release into their native habitat (in this
> case, the Mojave  
> Preserve).
>  
> One of them, who wasn't 'right' to begin with,
> did not survive. The little  
> guy that's left is now about three inches long.
>  
> The ones we lose in the wild here are usually because
> they've fallen victim  
> to the Army at Fort Irwin (steadily encroaching upon our
> 'ruralness') and the  
> ever-increasing numbers ('murders' - hah!) of crows
> who turn them belly-up 
> and  feast away.
>  
> He eats canned green beans (with the salt rinsed off), and
> apple bits, and  
> banana slices, and grass (when there is any). And he starts
> walking toward his  
> 'food spot' in the terrarium when he sees me
> removing the cover.
>  
> He should be (was) hibernating now, dug down into the sand
> - that I get  from 
> the riverbed - but we've been having warm days and
> nights lately, so he's  
> kinda more active than he should be.
>  
> The cats often sit with their noses to the glass, and him
> peering at them  on 
> the other side. One wonders what they're saying to each
> other.
>  
> The old fellow who delivers my propane has two...so large
> now that they  live 
> outside in his yard year-round, and they begin walking
> toward the fence -  
> not real fast, though! <g> - when they hear him open
> the  refrigerator in the 
> garage.
>  
> Lends a whole new meaning to the phrase "dumb
> animal". I figured out long  
> ago that this only refers to them not being able to speak -
> as we speak. 
>  
> He is one of the critters I check first thing every
> morning. If I had to  eat 
> him, I would eat him, but I sure would apologize first.
>  
> A lot of life is all about mutual respect.
>  
> Sandy
> Mid-Mojave
>  
>  
>  
>  
>  
>  
>  
> In a message dated 1/26/2009 2:38:05 A.M. Pacific Standard
> Time,  
> bobford79 at yahoo.com writes:
> 
> I just  thought this was an interesting article and know
> that a good part of 
> the list  has some connection to the SE portion of the 
> country.......
> 
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Editorial
> 
> Eating  the Wild 
> 
> 
> Published: January 25, 2009 
> 
> In America, there are  foragers among us, out searching for
> morels in the 
> spring, and there are  hunters too. Yet most of our food,
> except for fish caught 
> from the sea, is  farmed. We do not trap songbirds for
> savory pies. (We 
> destroy too many of them  through other means.) 
> 
> Once you look beyond the parochial culinary  habits of most
> Americans you 
> discover that wildness, and the tastes associated  with it,
> have a talismanic 
> power that is very hard to eradicate. It is what  keeps the
> Japanese whaling and 
> keeps some Africans eating bush meat. And it is  one of the
> things that helps 
> explain the voracious and utterly destructive  Chinese
> appetite for turtles. 
> 
> As global wealth rises, so does global  consumption of
> meat, which includes 
> wild meat. Turtle meat used to be a rare  delicacy in the
> Asian diet, but no 
> longer. China, along with Hong Kong and  Taiwan, has
> vacuumed the wild turtles 
> out of most of Southeast Asia. Now,  according to a recent
> report in The Los 
> Angeles Times, they are consuming  common soft-shell
> turtles from the American 
> Southeast, especially Florida, at  an alarming rate. 
> 
> Some scientists estimate that two-thirds of the  tortoise
> and freshwater 
> turtle species on the planet are seriously threatened. 
> Some of that is secondhand 
> damage — loss of habitat, water pollution, climate 
> change. But far too many 
> turtles are being lost to the fork and the spoon.  
> 
> In the United States, the solution is relatively
> straightforward.  States 
> should impose much tighter restrictions on the harvesting
> and export of  wild 
> turtles. Internationally, the problem is more complicated.
> There have  been 
> efforts to monitor the species of wild turtles found in
> Chinese markets,  but as 
> long as the appetite for turtles — and traditional
> medicines derived  from them —
>  persists, we fear it will be hard to curtail such a
> profitable and  
> disastrous trade.  
> 
> http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/26/opinion/26mon4.html
> 
> 
> 
> 
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