Five Beal’s-eyed turtles recently hatched at the Tennessee Aquarium. This species (Sacalia bealei) is threatened with extinction in the wild.
Five Beal’s-eyed Turtles hatched at the Tennessee Aquarium recently, a significant conservation milestone for this species.Bill Hughes walked toward a room in the Tennessee Aquarium that looked like a supply closet.
“Guess you want to see the little monsters,” he said, swinging open the door.
Inside is a wall of tanks containing different types of turtles. Two of the tanks contain five baby Beal’s-eyed turtles that were born in mid-July, each about the size of a half dollar. In all the accredited facilities of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums in the U.S., there are only 20 Beal’s-eyed turtles.
And they’re all at the Tennessee Aquarium.
“This is another one that used to be really common in the pet trade, but isn’t really anymore,” Hughes said of the Beal’s-eyed. “At some point, you just woke up and said, ‘Where are they all?'”