PADRE ISLAND, Texas — It's a new lease on life for a group of cold-stunned turtles coming all the way from Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
Every year about this time winter Texans start to arrive on the yard most of them are driving RVs but this year the first arrivals are flying turtles.
When water temperatures drop below 50 degrees, turtles, who rely on their environment, go catatonic. That's what happened to 20 Kemps Ridley turtles who were brought to Texas by plane to be rehabbed.
You didn't think the turtles could actually fly, did you?
"We've got about twenty turtles here, they're hypothermic, or cold-stunned, and so we have to slowly warm them back up," Dr. Tim Tristen at the Texas Sealife Center said.
About 70% of the turtles have pneumonia, so the first step is X-rays, then a little rest.
"Once we think they are strong enough, then we start doing swim testing," Tristen said.
Swin testing starts in a little pool to see who is ready for the big pool.
The turtles will be at the Texas Sealife Center for a couple of months before being released into the relatively warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
Just some lucky turtles who hitched a ride on an airplane to warm up on The Island.
For the latest updates on coronavirus in the Coastal Bend, click here.
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