December 3, 2000

Today a male olive Ridley sea turtle (same species as Thelma and Louise) was brought in. He was found stranded on a beach and somebody called the aquarium to pick him up. They put him in this cart with a foam lined bottom, and he was just laying there, not moving. There was a healed hole near the front of his shell. It wasn't an open hole, more like somebody had carved a little circular bit into his shell. It looked like it could be an old bullet wound that had healed, but there was no way of telling for certain.

After he came in, they wanted to make sure he got food, medication, and fluids, so they force fed him. His mouth was pried open and they put a rubber tube in it and ran liquified food and medicine into his mouth. That done, they put heat lamps on him to keep him warm, and also covered him with wet towels.