Every year about this time, we bring the turtles indoors for the winter. Although hundreds of turtles winter over in Central Park and Prospect Park every year, our pond is too shallow and cold mid-winter and there is not enough soil and debris on the bottom to allow then to burrow deep enough to survive. Turtles go into a state called brumation (some mammals hibernate). So we bring them indoors in the basement of a nearby building in a large tank. Jim, Leo, Chao and Shane made it happen this year. And of course, Richard, our neighbor and turtle expert talked to spectators (including Oscar the dog) about the turtles. As we pumped out the pond, we net the fish into bins full of water and put the turtles we can net into other bins. Finally, when the water is shallow enough, Leo climbed down and dug around in the dirt in the bottom and found the last turtles that had burrowed in. We pulled 19 turtles out this year. They’ll be back in the spring.
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