Animal Island

Wetland

Where the grey heron finds a home

The lake in the middle of Animal Island, which has been given new life through the rehabilitation of a heavily polluted and eutrophicated quagmire, has developed a special Wetland, home to many wild duck families and many other animals (mammals, birds, reptiles, fish, etc.) as well as wonderful, rare aquatic plants.

Although in an artificial pool, ELEK the swamp turtle (Emys orbicularis) also found a new home on REX ANIMAL ISLAND. Thanks to your savior, Dr Péter Szlamka, veterinarian!" Elek was found on March 28th near Tata, in a slow-flowing stream called Által-ér, which was intensively fishing. It floated by the shore on top of the water, I could easily catch it by hand, it showed no resistance (swamp turtles, by the way, swim at lightning speed, man is noticed from afar, it is simply impossible to catch them with his bare hands). It was immediately apparent that he had a serious injury: half his jaw was missing, and the area around the injury - but also partly his head, neck and eyes - was covered with purulent-nearable secretions and veil-like plaque. The injury was probably the result of a harsh hook release. When using live bait (wormwood, bone candy) or fish slice, it happens that the hook is caught by a swamp turtle. When I saw the injury, my first reaction was to take her home and put her to sleep.

At home, however, after cleaning the wound, with the calmness of the underdogs, I decided to try to save him after all.

The treatment lasted 1-1.5 months (drying, local treatment, disinfection, treatment of eyes, etc.). He started eating after 3 weeks, but at first with very poor "efficiency": in the absence of a jaw, he could only hold and swallow the snorted bite at about the 100th attempt, so one feeding took almost a day. In recent months, he has largely learned to deal with this situation: today, at the 5th-.10th attempt, he can swallow the right size of bite, so feeding only takes a few minutes. It is still not able to obtain independent food and prey, but it can already skillfully consume food prepared to the right size.

In the meantime, he is tamed: he lets himself be touched, stroked, swims up to our approach, stretching his head to "communicate".

Lesson learned: even such a "primitive" animal (reptile) can learn and successfully apply a new, different way of feeding in adulthood (keywords: adaptability, learning).

If, while fishing, a swamp turtle accidentally gets caught on our hook and the hook is not removed GENTLY, there are two things you can do: 1. cut the hook with a short piece of braid (sooner or later it will probably eject itself) and release the turtle or 2. take it to a veterinarian to professionally remove the hook from the animal."

Image: Kerekess György

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