News & Events

Hugh Quinn Assumes New Role with the TSA

by Heather Lowe 

Hugh Quinn (TSA Board) is the new Chair of the TSA’s Animal Management committee. Hugh visited the Turtle Survival Center (TSC) recently and spent a busy week working on a range of projects. He was on site mainly to review current animal management policies and procedures, and to “ground truth” our collection plan within the framework of the planned TSC holding space. In other words, he looked at the question, “are we building enough facilities to manage all the species we need to over the next three years?”

By Wednesday afternoon, Hugh had jumped right in and was busy adding mulch and leaf litter to impressed tortoise enclosures, and welcoming new arrivals sent to the Center by Dwight Lawson. The new group includes breeding pairs and F1 offspring of both Arakan forest turtles and Impressed tortoises, and a new Burmese star tortoise.

The past two weeks have seen a flurry of activity at the TSC with shipments arriving from the Fort Worth Zoo, Ben Anders and Scott Davis including additional Burmese star tortoises, Arakan Forest turtles, a Forsten’s tortoise, a pair of red-necked pond turtles, a male Beal’s eyed turtle and a male Sulawesi forest turtle. The weather is ideal now for acclimating the new arrivals in the South Carolina low country, with everyone enjoying the warm Spring climate ‚Äì definitely a welcome relief after a brutal winter.