The Big Chill

I took this photo at the Gumbo Limbo Nature Center Turtle Hospital in Boca Raton, FL.

I heard about Gumbo Limbo at Zumba while dancing the Rumba. It's an educational facility, a research center for Florida Atlantic University (FAU), and a shelter for sick or injured sea turtles. The unusually cold weather has hurt a lot of native fauna, especially the loggerhead turtles. Breathing the cold air is difficult for them and puts them into a stupor. The turtles stop swimming and float on the surface. They either wash up on the beach or are caught by fishermen. People call the nature center to pick up the stunned turtles. Normally, the facility shelters 7 turtles, but recently as many as 60 have been treated. Here an FAU marine biology student is checking the vital signs of a loggerhead turtle to see if it can be returned to the ocean.

Other reptiles have been affected by the cold weather. Iguanas and geckos are also stunned by the cold and fall from trees. Many of them are killed by the cold because they are cold-blooded. Tropical fish farms also lost their entire stock of fish because it dropped almost to freezing for a few nights.

Temperatures are warming up now. Tropical animals were being returned to their outdoor cages while we visited the Palm Beach Zoo today.