🐢Happy World Turtle Day!🐢 (Patreon)

Let’s #shellabrate! Watch crazy cute baby turtles take their lake back in this video from our Deep Look archives https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTYFdpNpkMY.

A baby Western pond turtle swims in a tank. (Josh Cassidy/KQED)

Did you know turtles grow up without parents? It might sound lonely, but for threatened baby Western pond turtles raised in a zoo it’s an advantage: they can learn to catch crickets all by themselves. There’s a paradox, though. 

When they are ready to leave the nursery, there is little wilderness where they can make a home. That’s where the work of organizations like the Oakland Zoo, the San Francisco Zoo and the Presidio Trust really make a difference.  Their turtle conservation efforts are a part of the restoration of Mountain Lake, one of only three remaining natural lakes in San Francisco, California.   

➡️Ask us your turtle questions in the comments below.