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AUSTIN: The brutal cold snap that has frozen Texas has not only lulled unsuspecting people to the bone – thousands of turtles have also been caught off guard.
Thousands of sea turtles unaccustomed to falling temperatures have been appearing on the beaches of South Padre Island, off the southern coast of Texas. Volunteers have taken about 4,700 of them to a convention center, where they are kept in tubs and enclosures before they can be released when the water is warmer.
“It is an unprecedented event,” said Wendy Knight, executive director of the Sea Turtle Inc conservation and research center, which has been leading the effort. Knight said that typically only 100 to 500 turtles make it to South Texas beaches each winter.
People place rescued turtles stunned by cold weather at an evacuation center on South Padre Island, Texas, in this still from the video, Feb.15, 2021. (Image: Reuters / Ed Caum – City Visitors and Convention Bureau) from South Padre Island)
Millions of Texans have been left without heat due to power outages in the state triggered by a cold snap in which air and water temperatures have dropped well below typical levels.
Video shot by Ed Caum, executive director of the South Padre Island Convention and Visitors Bureau, shows volunteers carefully placing animals in a cart and then the convention center floor covered in turtles of all shapes and sizes.
Caum refers to tortoises as “cold-stunned,” a condition in which cold-blooded animals suddenly exhibit hypothermic reactions such as lethargy and an inability to move when the temperature in the surrounding environment drops.
People place rescued turtles stunned by cold weather at an evacuation center on South Padre Island, Texas, in this still from the video, Feb. 15, 2021 (Image: Reuters / Ed Caum – City of Convention and Visitors Bureau) South Padre Island)
“We have brought them to the convention center to regain their core temperatures,” Caum said, narrating one of the videos.
In the latest video posted to Facebook on Wednesday, Caum recounted how the center’s power and water supplies were restored overnight.
“We’ve expanded downward on both wings. The heat is coming back up in the hallway,” says Caum as the video shows a hallway full of turtles lying end to end on a blue canvas.
“We have collected a lot, now we will try to save them,” Caum said.
