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[Bunjov AT aol.com]

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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