TALLY, the critically endangered Kemps Ridley sea turtle who has been in the care of Anglesey Sea Zoo for almost 20 months, is doing extremely well after being flown to Texas on August 30.
She had a mammoth pan-Atlantic journey and arrived yesterday (August 31) at Houston Zoo.
There, she is being housed in a pre-release tank behind the scenes, awaiting her final release back into the sea in the Gulf of Mexico in a few days’ time.
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The mammoth task to fly Turtle Tally across the Atlantic
Tally’s temperature had dropped in the cargo hold during the long haul trans-Atlantic flight and there was some concern that she may need time to recover.
But this was not the case, and she exuberantly started to swim around her tank, exploring the new environment.
Frankie Hobro, owner and director of Anglesey Sea Zoo, said: “It was wonderful to see how Tally took to being back in sea water.
“She was clearly excited to be swimming around again and she enjoyed peeping through the underwater windows in the tank and splashing everyone watching her.
“I think her instinct has kicked in and she knows she is back home where she belongs.
“In just a few days, she will be released back into the sea, with hopefully another 50 or more years to live her life as a wild turtle again.”
Yesterday, Tally underwent medical tests, X-rays and inspections at Houston Zoo, to determine her fitness for release and whether she is strong enough to be fitted with a satellite tracking device.
Mary Kay Skoruppa, Texas sea turtle co-ordinator at the US Fish and Wildlife Service, said: “It was great to see Tally behaving like a feisty and wild turtle.
“She seems to be strong and fit and pending the blood test results in a couple of days, she has passed all her pre-release checks with flying colours!
“Frankie and her team have done a fantastic job in caring for her and preparing her for life back out in the wild; we hope she will thrive upon release.”
Tally the turtle was reported stranded on Talacre Beach on November 28, 2021 by a member of the public.
Further investigations revealed that the sea turtle was still alive, so she was transferred to the Anglesey Sea Zoo for specialist intensive care.
She is a Kemps Ridley turtle, the world’s rarest species of turtle and critically endangered.
Just two known breeding sites remain for the species globally, both in the western Gulf of Mexico, where there are only around 8,000 breeding females in the world.
The repatriation exercise to fly Tally for re-release in the Gulf of Mexico has taken almost a year to implement.
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