RE:Tortoises
(Date Posted:06/03/2008 2:42 AM)
My husband is unofficially dubbed an "tortoise wrangler" by the Jawbone BLM. I don't know any particular reason why you see them on the road... except that you & they happened to be there at the same time. It's better not to pick them up unless they are really in danger. When you pick them up it scares them and they urinate and get dehydrated. When they are just at the side of a dirt road and not in the middle, we've taken rocks and put a barrier so they can't go across the road any further, that way another oncomer hopefully will see the tortoise and avoid hitting it in his vehicle, and the tortoise will be forced to move back off the road the short way instead of crossing the other side. If we have to pick them up - we keep packages of plastic disposable gloves in the first aid kit which come in handy for tortoise wrangling. Then they say to put them across the road in the same directions they were going to safety. The reason for the gloves is because of a virus or something that is very dangerous to the tortoise. You can't get it...but if you run into more than one tortoise and one is infected and the other isn't - and you've touched them both you can transfer that virus from one tortoise to the other. So always wear gloves and dispose of them after...and only move them if that's the only alternative to saving them.
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Cecile
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Well behaved women rarely make history - Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
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