AboutMark Adkins Expertise I will be glad to help with your tortoise- and turtle-related questions. My specialty is Red-foot Tortoises, but I can try to help with many aspects of turtle care.
Understand- I am not a vet. Also, the more information you can give me, the more accurate my answer can be.
(Because of the number of questions I get, I reserve the right to direct you to a good website that will help rather than re-inventing the wheel with long answers or cut and pastes.)
Experience Tortoise and other reptile keeper since 1964.
Member of the Nebraska Herpetological Society.
Author of books and articles on tortoise care.
Currently own five Red-foot Tortoises.
Expert: Mark Adkins Date: 7/2/2008 Subject: Putting a Pet Turtle in the Wild
Question Hi,
My son purchased a Yellow Bellied Cooter several years ago and the little feller has now grown into quite a big feller!
We have him in a 40 gallon tank, but were wondering if he would be happier being set loose in the wild where my brother has a big beautiful pond.
We live in Northeast Ohio and do have some brutal winters. We do not want to do anything to endanger him but we want him to live his life to the fullest.
If you could let us know if letting him go is a good decision or not, we would greatly appreciate it.
Thank you for any help that you can give us,
Sincerly, Jennifer Beacon
Answer Letting animals go in what seems to be a lovely habitat is one of those things that sounds so good, but is really not a good idea... and it can be hard to explain exactly why it is so bad.
On the one hand, the turtle is not likely to survive. Ohio is quite a bit north of its usual habitat, and it is out of the habit of evading predators, hunting, hibernating, etc.
On the other hand, it just might survive, but as a larger species than the local animals, it could easily survive at their expense. If there are other released sliders, they can breed and colonize which will REALLY hurt the local populations.
There are other issues, such as legality (many states and places forbid releases like this because of environmental impacts), disease, etc.
Other options would include finding it a new home, either with an animal shelter, wildlife or reptile rehab or adoption program, etc. You can try craigslist.com, kingsnake.com, or (my recommendation) http://www.turtleforum.com to find a new home for it.
