I used to have to RES. I acquired them when they were about the size of a half dollar from one of those kiosks in a Florida mall while on vacation. One was my sisters, but I was the one who took care of it mostly. Their names were Ivy (male) and Karma (female). I had them until they reached about 3.5"-4" in shell length, at which time my mom convinced me to take Ivy down to Georgia and release him in a pond where other RES resided. We had been feeding them live feeder fish, so they knew how to hunt. I know he is still alive and well today, as my aunt sees him frequently (she lives near their pond). She had bought two RES for her son as well. I know he's probably better off in the wild where he can mate and bring about lil Ivy Jrs. My sister however, was adamant about not releasing her turtle... until she wanted a hamster. My mom told her she had to release Karma if she wanted to get a hamster. I love my sister but where she decided to release her RES was a dumb decision. She is the type who wants an animal but quickly gets bored of it and starts to slack on its care. So she was better off keeping the turtle, where at least she had a reliable food source. We have an overpass that leads into our rural, farmland neighborhood. Under that overpass is the bypass. And beside the bypass and overpass is a small pond, that I believe is a sewage pond or rainwater pond. It has a large pipe cement leading into it. What drains into that pipe, I'm not sure. I'm in virginia. It can get pretty cold here in the winter, as low as 10 degrees F. She released Karma in mid August, where the tank temps were roughly the same as outside temps. She released her in that pond. Considering the factors of the winters and the bypass, what are the chances poor Karma is still alive? And what about my Ivy? I really miss them both and I wish I hadn't decided to release my boy, despite the size he would have gotten. Can anyone ease my mind about my decision to release him? I feel guilty, and worry he may not be alive, even though my aunt sees RES around, it doesn't mean my boy is in there. They were released several years ago, when I was about 13-15 ish. The pond I released Ivy in was very large and deep and contained lots of fish and plants and shade. Poor Karma, however, got the bad end of the deal... the pond, while it may possibly be deep, is very dirty and I'm not sure it contained fish. Add to that the factor of cars, and poor Karma is out of her element. My sister is selfish, and only cares about herself and her happiness. She did not think about Karma's chance of survival and the winters and car. She is thoughtless. I regret her decision, however, I could not change her mind. I wish I could have. She is stubborn, and her mind was set. I love her, but there are qualities about her I wish she didn't have. (I have 3 sisters [and a brother] , this is just one of them). Please try and ease my mind. Since I know the release of Karma in a bad environment was not my fault, I do not feel quite as guilty. I still worry about Ivy, and his release was partly my fault, with the pressure of my mom. Did I do the right thing in releasing him?
I'm sorry to hear about all of this. Unfortunately, my words will probably be of little comfort to you, but I thought I would speak my piece. The main problem here is the age of the turtles when they were acquired. At that size, they were still in what is known as the "sensitive" or "critical" time. Basically this is the time period ranging from the first few weeks to months of an animal's life. During this critical time, animals learn to associate various stimuli with food and shelter. This is known as "imprinting." Imprinting works differently in all species, and there isn't a lot of detailed information out there on the imprinting of reptiles, but there is evidence that reptiles do imprint. Rather than imprinting on their parents' actions, they seem to imprint on the sensory stimuli of their environment. For example, they may imprint on certain food items, habitat conditions and locations, etc. So, what does this have to do with your turtles? Well, rather than imprinting on a natural, wild setting, your turtles were imprinted on the care you provided. Simply put, your turtles learned that "home" was a tank with a consistent climate. They learned that "food" was a consistently provided type of minnow or goldfish which was hunted in a confined space. They didn't learn about the territories of other turtles, how to hunt in a large, open area, how to seek shelter from the elements or predatory animals, and so on. When they were released into the wild, they had to learn all of these things the hard way. Sadly, imprinting is a very, very difficult thing to undo; some say it is permanent and cannot be undone. I don't have the knowledge or experience to argue one way or the other. What I do know is that young animals raised in captivity have a very low survival rate when released into the wild. I'm not saying that both your turtles are without a doubt gone. Obviously some turtles released from captivity survive, as is indicated by their invasive status in many areas. However, the likelihood of their survival after being raised in captivity for an extended time at such a young age is not very good. I realize this is not what you want to hear. The upside of this situation is that you can use this as a learning experience. Now you know that releasing any captive animal into the wild is unfair to that animal. In fact, it is also illegal to do so in most (if not all) states. (I'm pretty sure it's illegal in all states but I don't know for certain.) Also, hopefully you have learned by now not to buy turtles from any touristy or flea market vendor. Almost all of these vendors are selling their turtles illegally. It is actually illegal in all states to sell a turtle with a carapace length less than four inches except under specific circumstances. Again, I'm sorry if my words seem harsh. I know you were young and any mistakes made were unintentional. Like I said, hopefully you can learn from this and will know better for the future. =)
