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Upgrade of gopher tortoise enclosure - January, 2005 |
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Click on the photos for larger versions with better descriptions. |
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Seven SHC members visited the residence of Vic Morgan, in
the Mandarin area of Jacksonville, Florida. Vic has been working
with reptiles for over 30 years, and has been specializing in Burmese
Mountain Tortoises, Manouria emys emys, and Manouria emys
phayrei, for just over 10 years. He was the first private
citizen in the United States to breed this rare tortoise and has what is
probably the largest collection of this species in the world. He
is the Taxon Manager for this species and is working with several
conservation organizations to establish "assurance colonies"
of this species, as they are becoming quite rare in their native land in
parts of southeast Asia, mostly due to the food markets.
Vic welcomed us to his home where he maintains these beautiful animals in as natural an environment as can be, giving them free run of the many large enclosures. We also got to see a few other species, such as the African Spur-thigh tortoise, Geochelone sulcata, and the redfoot tortoise, Geochelone carbonaria. Some of the aquatic species were the sliders and the very unusual side-neck turtle. |
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