November 2025

Hundreds of thousands of female olive ridley sea turtles (Lepidochelys olivacea) gather each year on the beaches of Costa Rica’s Ostional National Wildlife Refuge to lay their eggs. Biologist Vanessa Bézy, who has been studying the reptiles arrival for years, captured drone video footage of the arrival, or arribada, in November 2016. The day she […]

An aquarium in North Carolina is asking for your help in naming two baby loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta) that are currently in their care. The North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher has been caring for the reptiles after they were excavated from their nests earlier this year. The hatchlings failed to leave the nest

The Turtle Island Restoration Network, a non-profit based in Galveston, TX, is a top finalist for Galveston.com’s 2019 Best of the Island Awards. Voting for the best non-profit is open and continues through December 31. The organization’s Galveston office works to protect and restore sea turtles and marine biodiversity in Texas and across the Gulf

A 21-year-old woman, Keri Zhang Wang of Elk Grove, CA, was indicted by a federal grand jury on October 21. She faces charges for smuggling box turtles and map turtles from California to Hong Kong, as well as false labeling of exports. The announcement was made by United States Attorney David L. Anderson and United

The Center for Disease Control has announced that 21 people in 13 states have been infected with a strain of Salmonella Oranienburg, which was most likely contracted from pet turtles. There have been seven hospitalizations, but thankfully no deaths reported. The CDC states that epidemiologic and traceback evidence point to reptiles as the likely source.

The desert tortoise (Gopherus agassizii) in California’s Mojave Desert has been listed on the Federal Endangered Species List since 1990 due to rapid population declines. This decline correlates with a significant increase in the raven population. According to a press release from the Marine Corps Logistics Base Barstow, California, the rise in ravens is partly