Remember hatch chicks or looking after a salamander in the younger days of school? It was always a good time where you learned how not to kill these things.
Looking after animals is all well and good as long as its within the law.
Apparently, this was the case for a Texas school according to Chron.
Teachers at the school brought in a couple Tortoises several years ago, but over the years students brought in more and more of them. The ended up getting overwhelmed trying to look after them all and had to call in Texas Parks and Wildlife for assistance.
When they showed up they called in the Game wardens as they noticed the tortoises in question were a threatened species in Texas. A biologists was called in to confirm the species, which indeed was threatened.
It is illegal to posses threatened wildlife species. On top of it they had 24 stuck into a small living area.
Yes, two dozen threatened tortoises hiding in one school… what are the odds?
Ironic you’re trying to teach kids about looking after wildlife only to find out what you have been doing is illegal. However, the school got off easy though and everyone used it as a learning lesson.
Game wardens removed all the tortoises from the elementary school. They took them to a tortoise specific ranch where they can thrive.
Texas Parks and Wildlife summed it up on their website.
“The warden arrived at the school to collect the tortoises for TPWD assisted relocation.
In doing so, the curious students and staff gathered around the atrium to watch and the warden made use of the attention by turning the removal into an impromptu educational program on the tortoises and their natural habitat.”
Stick to hatching chicks, I guess…
