Adopt a Turtle

The Georgia Sea Turtle Center is proud to announce the long awaited Adopt-a-Turtle Program! With your donation of $50 or more, you can adopt one of our sea turtle patients. Current patients and already released patients with satellite transmitters are eligible for adoption.
When adopting a turtle, you will receive an official certificate of adoption, a letter from your sea turtle, a 5 x 7 photo of your sea turtle, weekly updates from the Georgia Sea Turtle Center, and you name will appear as an adoptive parent on the Georgia Sea Turtle Center website. If you chose to adopt a current patient, you also have the opportunity to be a VIP at the release of you adopted turtle!

Focus Groups

Focus Classes will be offered monthly and typically held on 4th Tuesday of every month at 7pm, with a few exceptions, in the classroom. ALL volunteers are welcomed! March’s Focus Class will be on Monday, March, 24 at 7pm in the Classroom and will be conducted by Dr. Bill Irwin, Director of the Georgia Sea Turtle Center. He will be discussing the migration and navigation of sea turtles.

Join us for Turtle Tales

Turtle Tales has moved! We now offer this program on Saturdays at 10:30am and is FREE with general admission! There are so many books about sea turtles, it’s hard to choose! Our Turtle Tales program will introduce you to the many children’s books about sea turtles. This program involves a turtle-inspired book reading and craft for children of all ages. There will be a different book and craft each month.

Behind the Scenes

Ever wonder what it feels like to be on the other side of the Treatment Window? Wish you could get a closer look at the patients, off of the pavilion walkway? You’re in luck. The Georgia Sea Turtle Center is pleased to offer behind-the-scenes tours. Guests will visit
food preparation areas, animal holding areas, and the treatment, X-ray and Surgery Rooms. Come join us for a closer look at the Georgia Sea Turtle Center from the other side of the Treatment Window. Tours are conducted on Saturdays and Sundays at 2 P.M. and are offered on a first come first served basis,–Reservations are required. Call early or sign up in the Gift Shop- Group size is limited to 10 guests. (912-635-4444) Cost: $25/Adults - $15/Children (Must be at least 10 years of age). Price includes admission.

Educating at the Georgia Sea Turtle Center

School group attendance started to pick up in February, as anticipated, with approximately 200 students visited the Georgia Sea Turtle Center in February! We took our ‘show on the road’ to Oglethorpe Elementary for an Outreach program for 200 1st and 2nd graders as a part of Georgia History Day! In February, the Georgia Sea Turtle Center Education Team has been attending numerous educational conferences throughout the state of Georgia, including the Georgia Science Teachers Association and the Georgia Middle School Convention, with more to come in March though July! In addition to making oral presentations at these conferences, they also host educational exhibits and pass out information about the Georgia Sea Turtle Center.

An Update on our New Patients!

The Georgia Sea Turtle Center is very excited to share our news of Griffin! Griffin is a loggerhead sea turtle from the Daytona area that has been with us since mid November of 2007. He was not eating for a long time and had to be tube fed twice a day for several months. Just recently he has started to show interest in eating on his own and that soon developed into him eating on his own regularly! He is more active now than ever before, but he is still not as active as a healthy loggerhead and continues to float (not able to submerge).
We are no longer tube feeding him and he is off of most medications at this point. Several of our Kemp’s ridley sea turtles have lesions developing on the bridge of their shell (the area where the carapace meets with the plastron). We are looking at using antibiotic impregnated beads to slowly release antibiotics to the areas mentioned over time. Otherwise these young turtles are doing well – everyone is eating well and gaining weight normally. You may see some pvc objects in the tanks of the turtles – these objects act as enrichment items or something for the turtles to interact with, rub up against to scratch their shells, and snuggle up under when they want to rest. These objects promote natural behaviors and provide stimulation. Vida and Spitfire, both loggerhead sea turtles, are scheduled for release this spring or summer, depending on the water temperatures. Dylan is also scheduled to be released this spring, so come and see these turtles before they are fixed with a transmitter and released for a second chance at life! We have a new patient who was hit by a car
recently in nearby Brunswick. This animal’s name is Pleb, he is a common snapping turtle. He is not a sea turtle but a local wild turtle in need of veterinary care. He has a significant fracture along his carapace and is being treated daily at the center. He has some infection present and may be a great candidate for vacuum assisted wound therapy to help speed up the healing time. Common snapping turtles live in fresh water and are mostly aquatic, preferring to stay under water as much as possible. Please always be careful when driving on roads near suitable turtle habitat!

Tags: April 2008 Jekyll Island Beachscape, Georgia Sea Turtle Center, jekyll island sea turtles, sea turtle update

This entry was posted on Monday, March 24th, 2008 at 1:14 pm and is filed under April 2008, Beachscape. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.