General Care Discussion :: Wildfowl Preserve for RES?

[PhunkeyPhish]

I have found someone who lives around a large aerated pond. The pond is in the midst of lots of a lot of brush and enclosed by houses. She says there are many types of water bird, and a few species of turtle living in the pond, including RES. The animals are also protected as the pond is designated as a wildfowl preserve. She offered to let me release my turtle into this pond. It sounds lovely for him, and after 16+ years of captivity the thought of him living in a large pond with other turtles and wildfowl sounds terrific. I just don't want to be placing him in a potentially harmful situation. What is everyone's opinion on this?

[Bumby's Mom]

It sounds pretty cruel to me. You don't keep an animal in captivity for any length of time if you plan on dumping him outside somewhere.

[PhunkeyPhish]

It seems equally cruel to me to keep a turtle in an aquarium. I keep mine in a 90 gallon aquarium and it still isn't enough space. This pond is not necessarily "the wild," there are no gators or large snakes lurking about. Furthermore, the lady who lives by this pond has allowed a few people to release turtles and she sees them sunning themselves everyday. I love my turtle to death, but turtles aren't like dogs, cats, birds, etc. they don't want human companionship, they want room to swim, food, and a place to sun.

I bought my turtle when I was in the 3rd grade... I'm not tired of him, I don't want to part with him, but I have no choice. Now I am 24, I would not encourage anyone to keep a large turtle such as a slider, THAT is cruel. Turtles need more room than the majority of people can supply them with. Even indoor or outdoor ornamental ponds are often too small.

[TheComputerGremlin]

A 90 gallon tank is within the reasonable limits for an adult slider in captivity. My only argument against releasing your turtle is that it has been 16 years, all instinct to live on its own are basically gone. It's very likely that your turtle will starve to death in a few short weeks. It would be the same as releasing your dog into the wild. At this point, you should continue to keep your turtle as the PET that it has become and let it live its years out until it dies after a nice, long life.

It's good that your friend is allowing turtles to live there, maybe rescue groups in the future could bring turtles there. But 16 years in captivity, yikes! I can't imagine it remembering how to hunt, let alone survive ...

[PhunkeyPhish]

I have taken that into consideration which is why I am posting here. But let me say that releasing a turtle is nothing like releasing a dog. A dog is a domesticated animal, there are no wild dogs. The dog (Canis familiaris) was domesticated from the wolf (Canis lupis) over 100K years ago. A turtle is a wild animal, there are not domesticated turtles. Further, my turtle eats vegetable matter in form of veggies and plants, and has also more than once made meals of fish. I'm not jumping into the release until I do further research, but it seems to me that the plants and fish in this pond would be suitable for my turtle, seeing how I live in south florida which is home to turtles including res.

[PhunkeyPhish]

ps... How do you determine what tank is "reasonable" for an adult turtle? I know of the formulas using shell length and width, but come on, that is what some person came up with... no one asked the turtle how they felt about the matter. The fact is, is that in any size aquarium, with the exception of zoo aquariums, the turtle is going to be banging into the walls all the time.

[TheComputerGremlin]

The tank size is based on experienced keepers (who have been keeping turtles for much longer than your lifetime). Whether or not it is completely perfect, I can't say. But I do know it is based on much experience.

As for you living in Florida, be ware of their laws concerning reptiles. I can't remember, but I believe Florida recently passed a law that prohibited the release of reptiles back into the wild.

I saw your post on another thread about finding a home for your turtle. If you are going to law school, you should have no problem relocating your turtle and tank with you. I'm in grad school in a very small and cramped apartment, and I have my turtle in a tank. There are many people on this board living in NYC where space is at a premium, and they are fine. Don't underestimate your living space until you have scoped it out. And I doubt it would look very good in retrospect to find a law student who disobeyed the laws of a state and released their turtle. I do know there are a number of people on the board from Florida, so maybe one of them may have a place for your turtle, but I wouldn't count on it. RES are very overpopulated and hard to adopt out ...

[PhunkeyPhish]

I'm not going to be having an apartment, it is not about room. It is about moving a 90 gallon aquarium. I drive a small honda civic, the only way to move a 90 gallon aquarium would be to ship it.

[PhunkeyPhish]

ps. I can assure you man law students and lawyers have broken a law or more in some part of their life. You have never broke the law? I find it hard to believe that there is anyone over the age of 18 that has not committed any type of crime.

[Take-One]

To tell you the truth I'd think it would live if you still fed it pellets. But aggression might arise between the turtles.

[TheComputerGremlin]

You could consider finding a tank up in that area, on Craigslist or something, so that would get rid of the need to ship the tank separately. I can understand the difficulty moving, I moved all of my possession 10 hours away in a little Toyota a few years ago. If money isn't an issue, you could consider shipping it or buying a new tank when you get there.

And I'm well over 18 and I have not broken any laws, unless you consider minor speeding (and I say minor in that as soon as I discover I'm speeding, I slow down). Heh, I don't even break any rules set forth by my apartment complex or either university I've attended ... But that's a discussion for a whole different thread.

I was also pondering the possibility of having someone continue to drop pellets in the pond, I would be interested how that would go over, with multiple turtles living there. Aggression would hopefully be low, since they have a whole pond to avoid one another. Your little guy looks so sweet in your avatar! I do hope you can find a way to keep him!

[SpotsMama]

Please see followup post - My Decision Not to Release.

[ChocoTurtle]

My cousin was also thing of releasing its 17 or 18 year old turtle to a pond but I thought it was a terrible idea