\u201cThe aviary was home to the turtles, ranging in age from about 5 to 20 years, and they were a much-loved feature for visitors to Cornwall Park,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
The stolen turtles can live for up to 50 years in captivity and grow to around 35cm in shell length. <\/p>\n
\u201cAt the aviary, the turtles are cared for by trained staff and provided with a specialised diet of high-quality pellets and fresh vegetables to support their health and wellbeing,\u201d a council spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir purpose-built habitat includes both land and water areas, allowing them to show natural behaviours such as swimming, basking, foraging and egg-laying. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt is vital that the turtles are kept in a cool area with water.\u201d <\/p>\n
They said the turtles should not be released into the wild. <\/p>\n
\u201cReleased turtles are unlikely to survive and can cause harm to local ecosystems. They can prey on fish, aquatic plants, k\u014dura and insects, as well as small birds such as ducklings, displace nesting wetland birds and degrade water quality. <\/p>\n
\u201cGiven the specialist care required and their low monetary value, it is possible the turtles may have been dumped.\u201d <\/p>\n
If found, the turtles should be placed in a secure, ventilated container lined with a damp towel and dropped off at the SPCA at 8 Heathcote Rd, Longlands, or to Hastings District Council, 207 Lyndon Rd East. <\/p>\n
Police said on Sunday they were investigating. <\/p>\n
In 2023, the Cornwall Park aviary was reopened after an upgrade, with a new enclosure and \u201cbeach\u201d provided to the turtles for a more natural egg-laying area.<\/p>\n
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThe aviary was home to the turtles, ranging in age from about 5 to 20 years, and they…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":217504,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[130375,1558,56777,5205,20211,28164,50363,5194,305,22528,3242,7810,111,43,139,69,8143,1527,10505,4736,427,8229,66960,61,6859,72649,3552],"class_list":["post-217503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-aviary","tag-been","tag-cornwall","tag-council","tag-dumped","tag-fears","tag-fence","tag-hastings","tag-have","tag-hole","tag-large","tag-may","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-park","tag-return","tag-square","tag-stolen","tag-story","tag-they","tag-thieves","tag-to","tag-told","tag-turtles","tag-urges"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}