Page 10 - Hobe Sound Reflections - September '23

Page 10, Hobe Sound

Book Review

Of Time And Turtles: Mending turtles until the patient is released back into the wild where it When word reaches

The World, Shell By Shattered was found, after care that can often take years of treatment. the league that the
ne st i ng si te s at a
Many turtle species live in water, even able to stay

Shell underwater for as long as months at a time through a business’s large parking
lot (which had been
special breathing process explained in the book. (Turtles
By Nils A. Shapiro that live solely on land are called tortoises.) Females, when thoughtfully roped off
People throughout the ready to lay their eggs, instinctively return to the place on from cars in advance
world will consider this book land where they themselves were born. With strong legs by the company’s
a “must read” when they see they dig holes in the dirt, deposit various numbers of eggs compassionate
the name of award-winning depending on the turtle species, then cover the nest and m a na ge m e nt ) a r e
author Sy Montgomery on return to the water or wooded area where they live. When showing signs of
its front cover. Her more the eggs hatch, the hatchlings (baby turtles) instinctively activity in the eggs,
than 30 previous books find their way to their natural habitat. Depending again we join Sy, Matt and
include those which have on the species, some turtles can live for up to 250 years, Natasha who drive to
climbed the bestseller lists many for 100 years. the sites and collect the
in 25 countries. The problem is that over the years and centuries, dozens of baby turtle
The Boston Globe has mankind has changed the environment so drastically that hatchlings – each only the size of a quarter coin – and
referred to Sy Montgomery as “a combination of Indiana the turtles’ instincts often prove fatal. For example, the bring them back to the rescue center where they can be
Jones and Emily Dickinson” for her ability to describe path from a turtle’s pond to the place where it was born, cared for until they are big enough to be released into
so beautifully her extraordinary adventures, including perhaps many yards away, may now require crossing a their proper habitat without running the risk of either road
being chased by a silverback gorilla in Africa, hunted by highway with the result that one of the most common and traffic or attack by predators because of their tiny size.
man-eating tigers in India (which became the subject of a serious emergencies brought to the Turtle Rescue League With Sy and Matt, we will witness several important
National Geographic TV special), working in a pit with involves patients with cracked or crushed shells or legs releases into the wild, including the hatchlings from the
18,000 snakes, studying octopuses in the Gulf of Mexico, or internal injuries who have been run over by cars. Each parking lot – and one very tender and emotional gift
swimming with manta rays and sharks, being undressed by is treated with expert care. Some will survive, some will of freedom for one very special turtle, Nibbles, in the
a wild orangutan, and so many more … never once harming not. Hundreds of thousands of turtles die this way each keeping of a promise made a decade earlier – for turtles
another creature. She even encouraged a giant tarantula to year on roads and highways on the way to laying their ready to face lives that can last for half a century or
walk across the palm of her hand. eggs or returning. more, long after Sy and Matt and Alexxia and Natasha
I am familiar with Montgomery’s works, having read, Some turtles are brought in who have been bitten by are gone. It is awesome to contemplate how many lives
loved and reviewed six of them in earlier columns. So it unleashed dogs who see it as some kind of toy. We even have already been saved.
was with much eagerness that I looked forward to this witness here a turtle with an arrow sticking out from its So when at last Sy devotes herself to reflecting
newest book – although with some degree of apprehension neck that was shot by someone “just for fun.” inwardly on life and time and reveals her own deeply
since the subject matter, turtles, seemed a bit tame for this As Sy and Matt volunteer at the hospital and get personal feelings about the meaning of it all, we are
author’s often dangerous escapades. To say that I was in to know each of the turtles by name (or number) and privileged to understand more about her … and perhaps
for a surprise is the understatement of the year! individual personality, we share that journey along with about ourselves.
As expected, this newest of Montgomery’s works them, and the awareness of what these creatures are going
proved to be as wonderfully informative about its through becomes a part of our own experience.
subject as are all her other works. You will learn many
hundreds of fascinating facts about the 300 species
of the world’s turtles, creatures that have walked this The Book Of Turtles
Earth for 250 million years and outlived the dinosaurs
– taking to the seas when the asteroid that crashed on A Book For Children By Sy Montgomery
our planet extinguished all other life on land – only to And Matt Patterson
become endangered today because of the deadliest of all
predators: humans. An oversized book by Sy Montgomery with full-
What is different about this newest book is that it color, almost photo-realistic, paintings by award-
reveals more about Sy Montgomery the author herself winning illustrator Matt Patterson of more than 30
than ever before as she becomes emotionally involved turtle species, enchants children and young readers
in the events she describes for us here. The result is that with such interesting facts as the turtle who lived for
I left many of the pages stained wet with my own tears 288 years (he was alive when George Washington was
of empathy … as I suspect many readers will. born!), the largest and smallest, fastest and flattest
Interestingly, while most of Sy’s adventures have turtles, the ones with longest necks, most colorful, Book jacket when opened shows life-size painting of
been set in all corners of the globe, this one required Sy stinkiest … and more! Burmese star tortoise.
and a friend of hers, Matt Patterson, to drive just several
hours from their New Hampshire homes to Southern
Massachusetts when they learned of a private nonprofit
turtle rehabilitation center there and decided to volunteer
their services. Matt is an award-winning wildlife artist
whose black-and-white drawings of various turtle species
are included in the book.
Sy and Matt’s gratifying experiences over several
years at the Turtle Rescue League, and which continue
to the present day, are what motivated the writing of this
new book. What they learn as volunteers, and we along
with them, is fascinating, inspiring, yet often shocking
and deeply moving.
To begin with, since turtles are in the category of
reptiles their faces have fixed features that cannot express
feelings of any kind, so it is difficult for most people to
think of them as “pets.” But we soon discover that each is
an individual with its own personality, and in these pages
we get to meet many turtles who have bonded with their
“people,” for example following them around the house
and even wanting their necks and shells scratched.
They are also smart: Tests have shown that some
turtles are able to navigate mazes for food rewards as
quickly as can laboratory rats.
The two women who started the Turtle Rescue League
in 2009 are Alexxia Bell and her partner, Natasha Nowick,
who is legally blind yet somehow skillfully performs
every task both inside the hospital and out among the
fields and ponds during the rescue and release operations.
They have assembled a team of many volunteers
throughout Massachusetts and neighboring states who
bring to them injured turtles in need of their help, knowing
of this facility’s commitment: “Never give up on a turtle.”
At any one time there are more than 200 patients in their
care, fed daily and stacked high in appropriately equipped
tanks and bins. At first, each is given a number. Not until it is
certain that the turtle will survive is it given a name because of
the emotional attachment that develops between humans and