Two-Headed River Cooter Thelmaandlouise Turtle Artwork June 2014

Summary: The two-headed Texas river cooter Thelmaandlouise Turtle artwork marks the two-in-one's first birthday June 18, 2014, and the San Antonio Zoo centennial.

Curator of Reptiles Craig Pelke cradles Thelmaandlouise for a meet-and-greet with attendees at the two-headed Texas cooter's first-year birthday party at San Antonio Zoo: Thelmaandlouise as depicted on San Antonio Zoo's 100th Zootennial poster: San Antonio Zoo @SanAntonioZoo, via Facebook June 18, 2014

The two-headed Texas river cooter Thelmaandlouise Turtle artwork applauds the first birthday of the Friedrich Aquarium's most acclaimed animal and the 100th anniversary of the San Antonio Zoo that accommodates the aquarium.

The two-headed Texas river cooter Thelmaandlouise Turtle artwork brings together portable and stationary art and art pieces as museum belongings and as museum visiting experience takeaways. Birthday announcements and birthday cards count among the San Antonio Zoo's stationary art for the Friedrich Aquarium June 18, 2014, because no visitors carry them away. Birthday cards do not draw designations as portable art since children decide their own designs, on and with zoo supplies, for display above Thelmaandlouise Turtle's tank.

Birthday announcements and birthday cards elicit status as museum belongings whereas anniversary posters and birthday t-shirts epitomize portable and stationary artwork as museum belongings and takeaways.

The two-headed Texas river cooter Thelmaandlouise Turtle furnishes a fetching example of a bicephalic ("two-headed") reptile whose embryo failed to form into full-bodied, independent, separated twins.

One yellow-marked green body between one dark-dabbed, yellow-marked green carapace (upper-shell) and one pale plastron (lower-shell) gets one short tail and four clawed, yellow-marked green legs. The shell-hidden body has, independent and separated, a leftward-leaning yellow-marked green head and neck called Louise and a rightward-leaning, yellow-marked green head and neck named Thelma. Friedrich Aquarium and San Antonio Zoo staff and visitors identify individual personalities that photo opp instances indicate with cult film namesakes Louise open-mouthed and Thelma close-mouthed.

The two-headed Texas river cooter Thelmaandlouise Turtle artwork juxtaposes zoo-donated land and animals in 1899 and 1914, the aquarium in 1948 and miraculous survival in 2013.

Bicephaly ("two-headedness") knows rare survivals in the reptile world since one body hardly ever keeps up with the doubled demand on circulatory, muscular and nervous systems.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists Texas river cooter sustainability of "least concern" despite populations endemic to central Texas's semi-shaded, semi-sunlit, turtle-friendly wooded wetlands. The Emydidae box, marsh and pond turtle family member matures amid lakes, ponds, rivers and springs with aquatic vegetation, basking logs, rocks and stumps and grasses. Texas river cooters need broadleaf mixed forests, grasslands, savannahs, shrublands and transitional forests and grasslands with nutritious crayfish, duckweed, earthworms, eelgrass, Elodea, insects, snails and tadpoles.

The two-headed Texas river cooter Thelamandlouise Turtle artwork offers one-time observations whose equivalently wild occurrences obtain sociable opportunities for mixed- and same-species basking, strolling and swimming.

The zoo Facebook page posted, "'Thelma' and 'Louise,' the two-headed turtle was born on June 18th, 2013 and we're celebrating their first year at the Zoo."

Publicity releases quoted, "Visit them at the Friedrich Aquarium and color your very own 'Thelma' and 'Louise' birthday sheet to be displayed inside the Zoo aquarium." The informational, promotional posting referenced portable takeaway art with "We will also have special 'Thelma' and 'Louise' items for sale to commemorate the turtle's special birthday." A switch from a personal to the Thelmaandlouise Turtle celebrity Facebook page after 3,440 likes from her first post-birth appearance shows the two-in-one's fundraising, newsworthiness skills.

The two-headed Texas river cooter Thelmaandlouise Turtle artwork tenders turtle conservation whose keystone species tell on stressed, toxic environments that perhaps trapped two embryos in one.

Thelmaandlouise celebrated her first, and last, birthday with well-wishers at the San Antonio Zoo: Thelmaandlouise Turtle @thelmaandlouise.turtle, via Facebook June 19, 2014

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Curator of Reptiles Craig Pelke cradles Thelmaandlouise for a meet-and-greet with attendees at the two-headed Texas cooter's first-year birthday party at San Antonio Zoo: Thelmaandlouise as depicted on San Antonio Zoo's 100th Zootennial poster: San Antonio Zoo @SanAntonioZoo, via Facebook June 18, 2014, @ https://www.facebook.com/SanAntonioZoo/photos/a.417991171538.212061.406923321538/10152446703276539/

Thelmaandlouise celebrated her first, and last, birthday with well-wishers at the San Antonio Zoo: Thelmaandlouise Turtle @thelmaandlouise.turtle, via Facebook June 19, 2014, @ https://www.facebook.com/thelmaandlouise.turtle/posts/262451480625300

For further information:

Baur, G. (George). 1893. "Notes on the Classification and Taxonomy of the Testudinata. Read . . . May 5, 1893: Pseudemys texana, sp. nov." Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, vol. XXXI (January-December 1893): 223-224. Philadelphia PA: Printed for the Society by MacCalla & Company, 1893.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/7219903
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/stream/proceedingsofamep31amer#page/223/mode/1up

Bowlin, Michael. 12 April 1992. "Patio Ranch Once Boasted 'Blind Service' for Hungry Hunters." Kerrville TX: The Kerrville Times.
Available @ https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/18980405/

Buhlmann, Kurt A. "Cooter Turtles." Reptiles Magazine > Turtles & Tortoises > Turtle Care.
Available @ http://www.reptilesmagazine.com/Turtles-Tortoises/Turtle-Care/Cooter-Turtles/

Cook, Joe. 29 July 2014. "San Antonio Zoo's Two-Headed Turtle Dies." San Antonio Express-News > News > Local.
Available @ https://www.expressnews.com/news/local/article/SA-Zoo-s-two-headed-turtle-dies-5654753.php

Ettinger, Jared. 27 June 2013. "Two-Headed Turtle Born at San Antonio Zoo, Probably Not a Ninja." The Mary Sue.
Available @ https://www.themarysue.com/two-headed-turtle/

San Antonio Zoo @SanAntonioZoo. 26 June 2013. "Thelma and Louise were part of a quartet of Texas cooters hatched at the Zoo on June 18, 2013." Facebook.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/SanAntonioZoo/photos/a.10151689796811539.1073741831.406923321538/10151689797151539/

San Antonio Zoo @SanAntonioZoo. 17 June 2014. "Not only will we be celebrating the Spurs' championship win tomorrow...we'll be celebrating a VERY special birthday! . . . ." Facebook.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/SanAntonioZoo/photos/a.417991171538.212061.406923321538/10152444970256539/

San Antonio Zoo @SanAntonioZoo. 18 June 2014. "Added a new photo." Twitter.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/SanAntonioZoo/photos/a.417991171538.212061.406923321538/10152446703276539/

Thelmaandlouise Turtle @thelmaandlouise.turtle. 29 July 2014. "The San Antonio Zoo is saddened over the loss of Thelma and Louise." Facebook.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/thelmaandlouise.turtle/photos/a.152458384957944.1073741826.152454174958365/273751446161970/

Thelmaandlouise Turtle @thelmaandlouise.turtle. 30 July 2013. "Thanks to Paul Garcia for this photo!" Facebook.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/thelmaandlouise.turtle/photos/a.152458384957944.1073741826.152454174958365/152697078267408/

Thelmaandlouise Turtle @thelmaandlouise.turtle. 3 June 2014. "Added a new photo." Twitter.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/thelmaandlouise.turtle/photos/a.152458384957944.1073741826.152454174958365/257689577768157/

Thelmaandlouise Turtle @thelmaandlouise.turtle. 19 June 2014. "Thelma & Louise's 1st Birthday party was a hit!" Twitter.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/thelmaandlouise.turtle/posts/262451480625300

Tickle, Glen. 29 July 2013. "Everyone Loves a Two-Headed Turtle, But Now You Can Like One on Facebook." The Mary Sue.
Available @ https://www.themarysue.com/double-turtle-facebook/

Tickle, Glen, 29 July 2014. "Two-Headed Turtle 'Thelma and Louise' Dies at San Antonio Zoo After Living More Than a Year." The Mary Sue.
Available @ https://www.themarysue.com/thelma-and-louise-now-dead/

Virata, John. 27 June 2013. "Two-Headed Texas River Cooter Born at San Antonio Zoo." Reptiles Magazine > News > 2013/06/27.
Available @ http://www.reptilesmagazine.com/Reptile-News/2013/06/27/Two-Headed-Turtle-Born-At-San-Antonio-Zoo/

Wilke, Hartmut. 2009. Aquatic Turtles. A Complete Pet Owner's Manual. Hauppauge NY: Barron's Educational Series Inc.