West Seattle, Washington
28 Sunday
ORIGINAL SEPTEMBER 2ND POST: Found a turtle in the stands of the West Seattle Stadium at 4:00 pm on 9/1 (abandoned?). If yours please describe. Call David at (removed) We have called the reptile man, Monroe reptile zoo rescue, and the seattle turtle club rescue and left messages to pick up so hurry and contact us if it’s yours.
OCTOBER 9TH UPDATE: See the comment discussion – Lauren finally found this post, and it did turn out to be the tortoise she lost on Labor Day. Joe, the finder, e-mailed us tonight to say they are reunited!
There are turtles in the wild, I’ve seen many at Greenlake. He may have wandered out of his habitat or a child may have picked him up out of his habitat while visiting the stadium.
Yup, we got turtles, Ma’am.
We have native turtles in Washington. But bunches of those turtles in Greenlake are offspring which are hybrids of western native and red-eared sliders, i.e., released pets. Look closely at some and you can see an atypical stripe on their ear/neck. Not all, but some of them.
I think many escaped pet turtles are box turtles – mostly from eastern/southeastern US OR dry SW turtles (or imported turtles) which do not fair well at all in our NW climate. They require a level of expertise and pain-staking husbandry few new pet owners understand or seem willing to learn.
At a minimum, we know this type of turtle is a “lucky” turtle. Dang lucky. No cars, no kids, no dogs (I have seen dogs kill box turtles) go to this critter first. They are often sick with pneumonia because of the climate/humidity issues.
Native western turtles are so few and far between in the city, Trickycoolj, it is OK for people to pick up the creature with caution and respect and locate rescue groups to identify it. If it is a native, no harm done, if the finders limit interaction and exposure and don’t feed it.
I love turtles. They, and loons, are the closest living things on earth to dinosaurs – primal ancient brains. Ambling ambassadors of the ancients. Coool.
If its a Tortoise then he may be mine. I live behind west seattle stadium and my tortoise went missing from his outdoor pen on Monday Labor Day 9/1. Please let me know what happened to him. I’ve had him since 1998 and am so sad I lost him.
Lauren
Please call the number in the post if you haven’t already – they would (hopefully) know where it is now. – Tracy
Tracy, Thank You! I did. Left a message and contacted the facilities they listed as well. Hopefully I will hear back from someone. I cant believe I didn’t think to look on here before. I thought he had been taken by human or wild animal which was making me really sad.
Lauren
Well, that is awesome. That truly is a lucky tortoise. Happy trails little critter and Lauren!
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