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  • From: Bunjov AT aol.com
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] SE U.S. wild turtle problems?
  • Date: Mon, 26 Jan 2009 06:30:46 EST

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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