Saving Turtles: A Kids' Guide to Helping Endangered Creatures
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About this ebook
A behind-the-scenes look at a hospital for severely injured turtles.
Turtles have been around for 220 million years -- longer than dinosaurs. But now their time might be running out. Of the roughly 300 species worldwide, more than half are threatened with extinction. Freshwater, marine and land turtles are all affected. And their biggest threat is us!
As the human race grows and expands on the planet, turtles are losing their homes, suffering the effects of pollution, the pet and food trade, killed by cars as they try to cross roads, and snared in fishing nets or by fish hooks meant to catch other species. Fortunately, a community of scientists, environmentalists and volunteers around the world are helping to protect and save turtles.
The author, Sue Carstairs, is a veterinarian at a turtle rescue and rehabilitation center. She reveals how she repairs shattered shells, broken jaws, and injured skulls, and nurses severely injured turtles back to health for release into the wild. Carstairs also explains how turtle eggs are harvested from injured mothers, incubated, raised in tanks and released into the wild. Organizations around the world performing similar work with land and sea turtles are also profiled.
What can readers do to help the worldwide effort to save and protect turtles? Two examples from the many offered in the book: participate in World Turtle Day, on May 23rd every year, sponsored by American Tortoise Rescue, and lobby for "turtle crossing" signs in nesting areas.
Sue Carstairs
Sue Carstairs
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Book preview
Saving Turtles - Sue Carstairs
Saving Turtles
A Kid’s Guide to Helping Endangered Creatures
Sue Carstairs
Published by Firefly Books Ltd. 2014
Copyright © 2015 Firefly Books Ltd.
Text copyright © 2015 Sue Carstairs
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the Publisher or a license from The Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (Access Copyright). For an Access Copyright license, visit www.accesscopyright.ca or call toll free to 1-800-893-5777.
Publisher Cataloging-in-Publication Data (U.S.)
Carstairs Sue.
Saving turtles : a kid’s guide to helping endangered creatures / Sue Carstairs.
[64] pages : color photos. ; cm.
Includes index.
Summary: Kids’ guide to turtle conservation, and how turtles can continue to survive in our world.
ISBN-13: 978-1-77085-434-5
ISBN-13: 978-1-77085-290-7 (pbk.)
1. Turtles — Juvenile literature. 2. Turtles — Conservation — Juvenile literature. 3. Endangered species — Juvenile literature. I. Title.
597.92 dc23 QL666.C5C3678 2014
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Carstairs, Sue, 1961–, author
Saving turtles : a kid’s guide to helping endangered creatures / Sue Carstairs.
Includes index.
ISBN 978-1-77085-434-5 (bound).
ISBN 978-1-77085-290-7 (pbk.)
1. Turtles — Juvenile literature. 2. Turtles — Conservation — Juvenile
literature. I. Title.
QL666.C5C37 2014
j597.92 C2014-901157-1
Published in the United States by
Firefly Books (U.S.) Inc.
P.O. Box 1338, Ellicott Station
Buffalo, New York 14205
Published in Canada by
Firefly Books Ltd.
50 Staples Avenue, Unit 1
Richmond Hill, Ontario L4B 0A7
Cover: LINDdesign
Illustrations: Nick Craine
The publisher gratefully acknowledges the financial support for our publishing program by the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund as administered by the Department of Canadian Heritage.
CONTENTS
A Note from the Author
Introduction
1 1. Getting to Know Turtles
Turtle Facts and Figures
Anatomy of a Turtle
Amazing Turtles
2 2. The Turtle Crisis
Threats to Turtles
A Global Problem
Turtles in Trouble
3 3. Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation
Treating Turtles
Shell Injuries
Other Injuries
Healing and Release
4 4. Headstarting
Harvesting
Incubation
Hatching and Release
Sea Turtles: A Special Case
5 5. Field Research
Following the Headstarters
Protecting Turtles through Research
Efforts around the World
6 6. Education and Conservation
A Good Education
Conservation: A Global Effort
7 7. Get Involved
How to Help Turtles
Glossary
Resources
Here, a new admission is assessed and a surgical plan put into place. With Sue Carstairs, the author (right), is Jennifer, a volunteer with the centre, whose regular job is emergency medicine in humans!
A Note from the Author
When I graduated from veterinary school, my goal was to work in wildlife conservation, combining medicine with conservation. Although I enjoy helping with all wildlife, my work with turtles is perfect for me, as it combines medicine and conservation so well. Turtles are in trouble all over the world. In Ontario alone, seven of the eight species are listed as at risk.
Through the past 200 million years, turtles have survived with little change, and with the same life history. To ensure the continuation of healthy species, they rely on a long life and very low adult mortality. These days, not many eggs make it to hatching, let alone to adulthood! Turtles