By Angie Ward
May 3, 2021
February 2021 Mother Nature slammed Texas with a cold spell like it hadn t seen in ages. Residents were without power as the grids failed. Food was running out and Sea Turtles were literally freezing. Sea Turtle Inc and Volunteers pitched in and rescued 5300 Sea Turtles from the freezing waters of South Padre Island. The South Padre Island Convention Center opened it s doors as a haven for the the turtles. Now, just shy of three months later, the final three cold stunned turtles are set to be returned to the sea.
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The record cold and snow in Texas didn t just catch the state s human inhabitants off-guard, it threatened its endangered sea turtle population.
Volunteers rescued thousands of the endangered amphibians across the Gulf region last week that were effectively paralyzed by the freezing temperatures, preventing them from eating or keeping their heads above water.
Wildlife officials in Corpus Christi recently returned hundreds of sea turtles to the ocean and used slides to return them to the wild.
The gentle creatures were placed one at a time on a wet slide, zoomed back into the water and then swam away.
The Texas Sealife Center says it released more than 200 sea turtles on Monday and Tuesday alone.
February 26, 2021
John Flesher & Jamie Stengle
DALLAS (AP) As many people in the southern United States (US) hosted neighbours who had no heat or water during the vicious February storm and deep freeze, Kate Rugroden provided a refuge for shell-shocked bats.
Starving and disoriented, the winged mammals tumbled to the snow-coated ground as temperatures plunged to levels rarely seen in the region.
“They burned through their energy reserves as they tried to wake up and get away from the cold and ice,” said Rugroden, of Arlington, Texas, one of rehabilitation specialists nursing stranded bats plucked up by sympathetic people.
“And there aren’t any insects out there for them to eat yet.”