Backyard Tortoise (Click to enlarge)
First I want to draw your attention to this guy on the left. Click the image and you can see her larger, the way I intended the photo to look. Organic. Dark. Other-worldly. Just as they have lived for thousands of years. What if I picked her up from my backyard, put her in a box and decided to keep her? Would it matter how I kept her? In an aquarium? How about in a protected sanctuary complete with room to roam? How about enough room which would equal what she would need in the wild?
I pose these questions today because I’ve been thinking of their answers after reading a horrible story which happened in Orlando yesterday. An Orca trainer at the Sea World park was dragged into the pool by the largest Killer Whale in captivity. He jumped from the pool, grabbed her by the waist and thrashed her back and forth. She was pronounced dead on the scene.
Dawn Brancheau, 40, was an experienced trainer at the tourist attraction. I have no doubt that she had Tillikum’s best interest at heart. He is a 12,000 pound mammal living in the park since 1992. Ms. Brancheau had worked with Tillikum for 16 of the 18 years he spent in Sea World’s confinement. He was born in 1981 and spent two years with his mother. Most males spend their lifetimes with their mothers and the rest of the pod. In 1983 he was abducted and sent to live at Sealand in Victoria, Canada where he performed and lived with two other females who picked on him constantly. This arrangement lasted for 9 years before Tillikum’s first incident (sic). Trainer Keltie Lee Byrne fell into a tank holding Tillikum and two other whales. They pulled the trainer under water until she drowned. Tillikum was then sold to Sea World.
You can find much information about the life and times of this creature. Then multiply it by the thousands of captive whales sometimes kept in enclosures which to them are no larger than a bathtub. Is it our right to capture and own exotic wild animals? I dream of visiting different oceans and taking the tours to view these creatures with my camera. I know I will experience the majesty which is in their nature. I have seen video of breaching and playing behavior. I see their dorsal fin as it’s meant to be – erect and magnificent, not flopped as are those in captivity. Should that not tell us something?
Which brings us back to this lovely terrapin. Is it our right to pluck her/him from her/his environment? We can, but is it our right? We can even rationalize our capture with the idea that we are protecting it. But have we interfered with the possible reproduction of more of them? Are there any among us who have not kept lightning bugs in a jar…perhaps until their deaths? I know I have partaken in such experiences myself…but I can’t help but notice that there don’t seem to be as many of them as there used to be.
If you think that I’m a little preachy today, reconsider. I am owned by an exotic bird. She was not wild-caught. She was bred and hand-fed in Louisiana. But is that right? I just pose the questions as I try to figure it out for myself. It is not possible to return her to the wild, as she has imprinted humans and she is now 16 years old. But what of those animals ripped from their wild flocks, prides, herds, pods, colonies or troops (apes)?
I know the answer for me. When we know better we do better. Perhaps it is time for us to look at these experiences we deemed harmless and teach our children to enjoy the wildlife as they live – wild. The only capture necessary to learn of these glorious creatures is photographic.
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