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Thursday, 30 July 2009
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Sun Setting on Summer
Things are starting to draw to a close for me. My last day is the 3rd of August and then I pack up and drive start to Florida where I start school stuff pretty soon.
Venus has gotten some sort of bacterial infection and has been moved into the ICU area in the gift shop where she started a Baytril regimen. She looks uncomfortable and has spasms. It's sad to watch but Jeff hopes it is just a side effect of the infection and will go away shortly. The good news is that she is swimming and eating.
All 3 of the hatchlings have names now: Boomerang, Hang Ten, and their sister Sofia. They're all doing well. Interestingly, Dave pointed out that Hang Ten has an abnormal central scute count.
Nothing new to report with Lucy; everything appears to be going well. Her deeper wound doesn't appear to be as fluid filled and the shallow cut looks like it's starting to heal a little bit, but it will still be a long road.
Saturday, 18 July 2009
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New Arrival
Lucy had her baby! A beautiful 9lb baby girl named Rachel arrived on Friday July 17! I can't wait to see the little girl! Because Lucy is in the hospital I've been pet sitting for the last day: 3 African Grey Parrots, 2 cats, and a juvenile Grackle. It's quite the experience but it comes with cable tv and a hot shower.
On the turtle front, the necropsy reveled that the loggerhead had died of sepsis which is a full body inflammatory response caused by microbes. So the new story is that he had been very sick and that the sepsis is what caused her to be floating on the surface and in turn struck by the boat.
We have a lull in our nest hatchings, the next one shouldn't be until possibly the 22nd.
Lucy, the Green struck by a boat, is doing well and was force fed the other day because she hadn't been eating and her pain medication is given in food. Other than that, she has stayed clean from infections and appears to be on the right track, although she still has a long road ahead of her.
Wednesday, 15 July 2009
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P.S.
I've been trying to keep up with pictures, but it has been difficult to sort and select so I uploaded a lot. If you wanna look at them just click on the tab named Photos at the top of the blog's page. -
Short and sweet
I had corral duty the last 3 nights (typically we do 2 night shifts but Erica was in Mexico and I offered to cover). We had 3 nests hatch. got to dig up the hatchlings! Twice! As in when the nest began to hatch and we dig down into the cavity to get eggshells and any hatchlings that were a bit slower to get to the surface. Monday morning, Jeff started for me and then said go ahead, but then on Tuesday morning when I called to let him know we had hatchlings on the surface he just said "Dig it up. I'll meet you at STI." How cool is that!
On Sunday night, we dug up 2 nests, but they were all still asleep so our release took just over 2 hours, but they eventually woke up and all 196 hatchlings went into the water. The next morning however they were frenzying, those little girls were ready to go. Did you know that sand temperature determines sex? Warmer sand produces females while cooler sand produces males. Here on SPI, we have very warm sand meaning we have a very high percentage of female hatchlings.
We now have 3 of this season's hatchlings at the facility. Boomerang is doing well. We also received a washback with a strange predator attack leaving his front left flipper looking a little bit like the surfing gesture the "shaka" so he received the name Hang Ten (which I think is pretty cute). And 3rd hatchling doesn't appear to have an injuries but washed back on shore. She doesn't have a name yet.
On Sunday night, we received a call from Port Mansfield about a 103 lb Loggerhead hit by a boat. So responders made the long drive there and took her straight to the Gladys Porter Zoo where she received stitches. She was hit on the head and flippers rather than the shell and appeared to have gotten lucky and was doing ok. Unfortunately, she died yesterday afternoon. I was very upset to receive the call, but more upset to find out that they were doing a necropsy and I couldn't make it because I was off of the island for the afternoon. I waited all summer for a necropsy and although it's sad that the turtle died, it's very upsetting that I couldn't be there for it. Perhaps I'll have the chance once more before the summer is out at least I hope so (as bad as that sounds).
Thursday, 09 July 2009
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Yay! Fourth of July!
Jenny the Loggerhead while cleaning her and Gerry's Tank
Gerry
Haha Turtle Slime!
Boomerang!
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