Zoos team up to save Western Pond Turtles

Published 5:00 am Friday, August 2, 2013

The next batch of endangered Western pond turtles raised at zoos in Seattle and Portland are being released into the wild this month in a continuing effort to save the species from hungry bullfrogs. The turtles are raised at the Woodland Park Zoo and the Oregon Zoo until they are too big to be food for the nonnative bullfrogs. A spokeswoman for the Seattle zoo, Caileigh Robertson, says it’s releasing about 80 turtles in a refuge at Lakewood. The Oregon Zoo is releasing 10 in the Columbia River Gorge. Robertson says about 30 more are being released this summer by partners, which include state and federal wildlife agencies, the Forest Service and Bonneville Power Administration. This is the 22nd year for the Western Pond Turtle Recovery Project.

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