Normally, we do not post blogs for an animals birthday, there would be way too many entries and too many cakes to bake. However, this month is special for one of our Red Ruffed lemurs,Cynthia. This promsimian turns the big 3-0! That’s right, 30 years old! Another primate turning 30 around here is Keeper Kim. Normal lifespan for a lemur in captivity is early 20s. Another older lemur we have is Lycus, who was born in 1985.
We have other animals which are older but we cant prove it because we do not have the birth records, we have an arrival date but not a birth date. Misha, the red tailed hawk arrived in 1993, we know he was at least 2 years old because he had lost his juvenile feathers. Two of our barred owls arrived in 1989 and were adults as well.These birds can live into their 30s. When it comes to snakes, we have a rattle snake that arrived in 1990 at the age of 8. We cant forget about our oldest bear Ursula , who just turned 20 this year and some of the turtles we don’t even have an arrival date on.
Happy belated Birthday, Cynthia!
how do you no when your red ear turtle is a boy or girl
Hey there Marla!
Let me answer this one for Jill if that’s okay. Once your turtles are a few inches long, look at their front fingernails. If you have a male, the claws will be super long, like Wolverine from X-Men 🙂 If you have a girl, they will be shorter and normal ratio length. The male uses his long claws to attract the females during the mating season when they are a little bit older.
You can also tell a little by ther length of the tails, with males having a longer tail than the females, but this a little harder to tell by unless you’re used to looking at alot of turtles. 🙂 The claw method is the easiest way.
Good luck with it and have a good one!