Earth and Space News: Thelmaandlouise two-headed river cooter born June 2013

Showing posts with label Thelmaandlouise two-headed river cooter born June 2013. Show all posts

Saturday, August 2, 2014

Two-Headed Texas River Cooter Thelmaandlouise Turtle Ambassador

Summary: The two-headed Texas river cooter Thelmaandlouise Turtle is the San Antonio Zoo's 13-month, world-respected turtle conservation ambassador, 2013-2014.

The two-headed Texas river cooter Thelmaandlouise Turtle allowed turtle enthusiasts and testudine experts 13-month access to the behavioral aspects and the physical appearances of the reptile world's rare affirmation of animal bicephaly.

The Latin bis ("twice") and the Greek cephalia ("head") become bicephaly in scientific, and two-headedness in conversational, English and broker necked, neckless, opposite-ended or side-by-side double-headedness. Celebrated, contemporary claims to bicephalic turtles concern the two-headed Texas river cooter that carries the name Louise for the left head and Thelma for the right. Jared Ettinger for The Mary Sue June 27, 2013, described the duo as each displaying "their own personality. One is very curious, the other very aggressive."

San Antonio Zoo's enigmatic exhibit expired June 29, 2014, after educating and entertaining staff and visitors since June 25, 2013, seven days after birth June 18.

The Facebook celebrity page Thelmaandlouise Turtle's post July 29, 2014, "The San Antonio Zoo is saddened over the loss of Thelma and Louise," furnished few details.

Staff from San Antonio Zoo's Richard Friedrich Aquarium generalized that "despite having great vigor in her daily life, her last few months showed lack of growth." The two-headed Texas river cooter Thelmaandlouise Turtle page hailed her as having "daily intensive care and monitoring to ensure she received the highest quality of life." It indicated, without imparting specific information about food chains and temperature ranges, that "This [care] included the daily monitoring of her water quality, lighting, and feeding."

Texas river cooter Thelmaand louise Turtle juggled "a typical neonate turtle life actively swimming in her enclosure, an ample varied diet, and a good basking spot."

The two-headed Texas river cooter Thelmaandlouise Turtle knew Richard Henry Friedrich's (Aug. 7, 1888-Sep. 8, 1962) namesake aquarium as birthplace and home with two one-headed siblings.

"[H]undreds of" first-birthday cards looked onto her tank within the aquarium on San Antonio Zoo's 57-acre (23.07-hectare) grounds since 1948 in Brackenridge Park, Midtown San Antonio. Colonel George Washington Brackenridge (Jan. 14, 1832-Dec. 28, 1920) made the two-headed Texas river cooter Thelmaandlouise Turtle's one-and-only home possible within a 343.7-acre (1.391-square-kilometer) public park. He named 199 acres (80.53 hectares) over to San Antonio in 1899 and nestled bison, deer, elk, monkeys, two lions and four bears there in 1914.

Michael Bowlin for The Kerrville Daily Times April 12, 1992, offered Friedrich as businessman with "a lifelong interest in wildlife" and San Antonio Zoological Society President.

Friedrich piloted exotic deer, Kentucky saddle horse and longhorn cattle presences on Bear Creek Ranch in central-southwest Texas's Hill Country and the Friedrich Aquarium's exotic fishes.

Friedrich's clean, small-scale aquarium queued up the quintessentially enigmatic, quizzically exotic animal with the two-headed Texas river cooter Thelmaandlouise Turtle, world-famous celebrity by June 23, 2013. Its world-respected two-headed Texas river cooter Thelmaandlouise Turtle remains "quite the mystery" for her embryo refraining from twinning-processed, two-body separations and her physique resisting continued growth. Environmental stress seems less likely than internal since an environmentalist from a local family savvily successful in refrigeration and temperature control started San Antonio's Friedrich Aquarium.

The two-headed Texas river cooter Thelmaandlouise Turtle Facebook page tributes a "tiny, yet giant, turtle conservation ambassador" since "turtles and tortoises suffer the worse [worldwide] fate."

open-mouthed Louise (left) and close-mouthed Thelma (right): Thelmaandlouise Turtle @thelmaandlouise.turtle, via Facebook July 30, 2013

Acknowledgment

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

Image credits:

Thelmaandlouise (top); Thelmaandlouise with a sibling (lower left); (lower right) Thelmaandlouise size comparison and carapace width measurement: San Antonio Zoo @SanAntonioZoo, via Facebook June 26, 2013, @ https://www.facebook.com/SanAntonioZoo/photos/a.10151689796811539.1073741831.406923321538/10151689797151539/

open-mouthed Louise (left) and close-mouthed Thelma (right): Thelmaandlouise Turtle @thelmaandlouise.turtle, via Facebook July 30, 2013, @ https://www.facebook.com/thelmaandlouise.turtle/photos/a.152458384957944.1073741826.152454174958365/152697078267408/

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/

Marriner, Derdriu. 1 August 2014. "Two-Headed River Cooter Thelmaandlouise Turtle Artwork June 2014." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2014/08/two-headed-river-cooter-thelmaandlouise.html

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. 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/

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/

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/

Virata, John. 1 August 2014. "Two-Headed Turtle Thelma and Louise Dies." Reptiles Magazine > Turtles & Tortoises > Information & News.
Available @ http://www.reptilesmagazine.com/Turtles-Tortoises/Information-News/Two-Headed-Turtle-Thelma-and-Louise-Dies/

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

Friday, August 1, 2014

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:

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:

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/

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

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/

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