Green Sea Turtles Returned to the Wild by Houston Zoo

Posted By : The Animal Facts Editorial Team

Date: March 17, 2021 11:20 pm

One of the rescued sea turtles is carried to the water by a rescuer

Photo Credit: Jackelin Reyna/Houston Zoo

A group of six green sea turtles had a reason to celebrate this Spring Break as they returned to the sea following a rehabilitation at Houston Zoo in the USA.

Five of these turtles were cold stunned and had come to the Houston Zoo in mid-January from Matagorda Bay.

One of the rescued sea turtles is carried to the water by a rescuer

Photo Credit: Jackelin Reyna/Houston Zoo

At Houston Zoo the five cold stunned green sea turtles were treated by veterinary staff at the zoo who provided them with physical exams and antibiotics. Since then the turtles have been recovering in Galveston, Texas with the zoo’s partners at Texas A&M University at Galveston’s Gulf Center for Sea Turtle Research.

The sixth rescued turtle was the first to present at Houston Zoo in 2021 and was brought in with a shell that is suspected to have been fractured in a boat propeller accident.

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Five species of sea turtle are recorded from the Gulf of Mexico with all of them being threatened or endangered. These include the Kemp’s Ridley, green, leatherback, Atlantic hawksbill, and loggerhead sea turtles.

These turtles are increasingly threatened by plastic pollution, entanglement in fishing gear, vehicle strikes and the development of beaches (especially light pollution).