Reports of his death, as Mark Twain said, were “Greatly exaggerated.” HELENA––“Heartbroken to share that our beloved Jonathan,” a Seychelles tortoise with an estimated age of 194 years, “the world’s oldest living land animal, has passed away today peacefully,” a scammer purporting to be St. Helena veterinarian Joe Hollins posted to social media on April […]
Turtle news? Not much is new to a turtle, but they just keep plodding along
25th annual World Turtle Day was a much bigger success than Donald Trump’s military parade MALIBU, California––The 25th annual World Turtle Day was “shellebrated,” in founder Susan Tellem’s idiom, back on May 23, 2025, but turtle and tortoise news tends to crawl along much like turtles and tortoises themselves, much more slowly and calmly most […]
Peepers are out for spring, but where are the voices for frogs & turtles?
California Department of Fish & Wildlife continues to ignore the advice of California Wildlife Commission to stop the import & sale of frogs & turtles at live markets OAKLAND, California––Why is Eric Mills of Action for Animals apparently the only California animal advocate mobilizing to put pressure on the California Wildlife Commission and Department of […]
Exotic animal sanctuarians race the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
Animals in need, unchecked breeding & abandonment, limited resources, & advancing age TAMPA, Florida––The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, according to the Old Testament Book of Ezekiel, are death by the sword, famine, wild beasts, and plague. But Ezekiel, though generally believed to have been a vegetarian and perhaps a vegan, was not […]
Reptile diversity study findings are less scary than a snake in your boot
Mainstream reportage focused on the bad news, but reptiles remain likely to outlive us WASHINGTON D.C.––All dinosaurs except birds, all ichthyosaurs, and all pterosaurs are confirmed extinct. Dragons, griffins, and Godzilla are alive and well in human imagination, the only habitat they ever actually occupied. Among the other 10,196 reptile species for whom population and […]
Rare Aussie animals save themselves, no thanks to Compound 1080
Brush-tailed rock wallabies & long-nosed potoroos need habitat, poison drops CANBERRA, ADELAIDE, MELBOURNE, Australia––Investigators are finding, in the wake of bushfires that ravaged protected habitat right around the forested coastal perimeter of Australia, that many rare Australian animals apparently know how to save themselves, with or without human help. More than a billion animals are […]
Noted in passing: “Turtle God” & rhino, elephant, & lion advocates
Victims of cancer, assassins, & two killed by the species they loved “Turtle God” Peter Pritchard, 76, died in hospice care on February 26, 2020. Known as “the Turtle God,” recalled longtime Tampa Times environmental reporter Craig Pittman, Pritchard at his home in Oviedo, Florida kept what Pittman believed to be “the largest private collection […]
Florida: Bashing the brains out of iguanas as alleged illegal aliens
Iguanas were in Florida first––by 16 million years FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida––Bashing or shooting the brains out of iguanas essentially for the hell of it would be illegal almost anywhere if done to pets. Braining iguanas in the name of research, however, brought University of Florida wildlife biologist and research coordinator Jenny Ketterlin and 14 […]
Hurricane Harvey hits hunters & fishers harder than wildlife
Shrimp, sea turtles, “sport fish,” teal & doves all get a break HOUSTON, Texas––As hard as Hurricane Harvey hit humans, pets, livestock, and some of the most vulnerable wildlife along the Gulf Coast of Texas and adjacent part of Louisiana, especially big birds who could not escape from the wind, early damage assessments indicate that […]
Turtles outlived T-Rex but are now at risk, says Fish & Wildlife Service
Three turtle species proposed for Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora protection WASHINGTON D.C.––The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service in the October 29, 2014 edition of the Federal Register proposed to list the common snapping turtle, Florida softshell turtle, smooth softshell turtle and spiny softshell turtle on Appendix III […]