A Normal Day at Garden State Tortoise… Until It Wasn’t

Spend the day with us as we check in on our turtles and tortoises, do some feeding, and enjoy the usual calm of sanctuary life… until one of our biggest residents had other plans. 🐢💥

We love sharing the behind-the-scenes of what goes into caring for these amazing animals every single day—and sometimes, they remind us who’s really in charge.

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Who is Garden State Tortoise? 🧐

However you made it here, thank you and welcome to Garden State Tortoise. Garden State Tortoise is home to hundreds of animals from all around the world. We are a family dedicated to adventure, conservation of wildlife, and all things nature. We are a reptile rescue and breeding facility for more than ten years, offering refuge to those who need it, and working everyday to protect the beautiful world of reptiles in any way we can. Here on our YouTube channel you will be able to join us on our animal adventures while learning how to care for, protect, properly identify, feed and even breed many species of turtle, tortoise, snake and lizard. We even work with frogs and salamanders! We hope you enjoy our videos and help us share them with the world so we can continue to educate people of all ages about herpetology.

Chris and Casey Leone

I can’t believe this. This is a first time on this channel. This is a Garden State tortoise exclusive. Otis is acting like a turtle. Oh, he heard me. He’s been tucked under this uh strawberry bush hanging out being a turtle. And he just noticed me now. So, that lasted a good 30 seconds, but he was doing it. He was being a turtle. Hey Otis, what’s going on? Awesome to see Rockalina climbing around like that. She’s healing from the muscle atrophy that she suffered from for so long. And she’s being a turtle, just like Otis. Kind of like Otis. A little more of a turtle than Otis. [Music] Look at this. Some beautiful marginated tortoises. They’ve been out for a while. Very warm. So, they’re uh There’s like five behind you. Are there? Oh my god, there are. Don’t mind this wire here. It’s just an extension cord. doesn’t harm them. Oh my god, look at them all. They have a big massive pen, but they’re all choosing this fountain grass to hide under because you see how dark colored they are. So, they heat up really fast. So, once they heat up, cuz they’ve been out since uh probably the sun first came up, they come back under here, they get some shade, they cool off, and then they’ll come back out later in the day, and we just fed them yesterday, and the pile behind you is uh was huge yesterday because you can see just how much they ate. These guys are still eating. Ibra Greeks. Tudor grea Ibra full of personality. Usually they’re actually not that warm yet. Their pen is still shaded, but as the day goes on, they’ll get blasted with sun. Once these are revved up, they will literally mow you down in here. Yesterday, Casey was trying to film to get some B-roll that these tortoises were just trying to mow down. One of the coolest things about setting the animals up in a natural manner is just kind of exploring and observing how they use the enclosure. You’ll never see them all in the same place at the same time, except for when you’re throwing food down. But what’s really cool, if we come over here, big spacious pen, but we’ve got a cluster of tortoises right here up against this grass. They’re not looking to be completely hidden right now. They’re just trying to stay out of the sun or more in dappled sunlight. That’s where vegetation in a pen really comes into play because this grass is allowing for dappled sunlight to come down here. And that’s where these tortoises are. And there’s a male right here that’s trying to make his way over to do the same thing. At least I think that’s what you’re up to. [Music] Check this out. Natural food source for the tortoises. This is malberry. The malberry tree. The leaves are relished by tortoises and they’re very good for them. So you can literally feed as much of this stuff as you want. So I’m just letting this tree grow over into the iber pen. And as the leaves fall, they’ll eat those. They can eat the berries if they want, although I don’t like them to go nuts with fruit. And uh the lower branches they can grab. But we can also pick some of this and offer it to the tortoises. You want to see something negative? Check this out. Spotted lantern flies. They’re invasive and they’re a problem. Unfortunately, they are showing up in all different areas. Uh New Jersey is clearly no exception. Look at them all. So, this was Chief Brody the alligator snapping turtles pond. If you guys have been following us, you know that it hasn’t been working out with him. We’ve got some things in the works. We’re trying to figure out the best case solution for him. Right now, he is happy and healthy. But this pond now is kind of a smores board of different pond turtles. They all coexist beautifully. And because they are basking turtles, an environment like this works out really well for them. Something about the biology in this pond just doesn’t seem to work for snapping turtles because they spend their entire lives under the water. Or at least alligator snappers do. [Applause] Don’t waste any of them. Can we Can we tell people what kind of turtles these are? What’s that? Tapin. Tapin. Diamondback tapin. Right. Soaked some Missouri croc diet for the box turtles because they love this stuff and it is good for them. These are Yucatan box turtles and this is a really awesome time to notice the difference between male and female just based off their color. Look at the head and legs of the male. That white and lavender and blue that you see, that is normal. That animal’s not a morph. That’s how these males are in nature. They are truly incredible when it comes to coloration like that. And people often think they actually are a color morph. But as the males develop and as they age, the older they get, the more this coloration comes out in the head and legs. And it really contrasts the female who is by no means dull in my opinion, but they have more of a green or yellow head and legs. And they’re a little bit more uniform than you would see with the males. The shells really aren’t all that different. You can get a yellowish marbled shell like you see on the male or an all almost black shell like you see on the female on either of the sexes. But they really are uh amazing. I mean just you all you have to do is look at two fully mature adults and you’ll be able to tell who is the male and who’s the female or if they’re the same sex just because of the coloration. These are Florida box turtles. They are pretty personable. And uh we got this is an older male right here. He actually came from Dr. Bill McCord. And if you are in the turtle community, you definitely know who Dr. Bill McCord is. Here’s another female. I love feeding pellets like the Missouri croc diet because it’s a nice way to get added nutrition in them. Most of the time, these turtles are eating the raspberries from the bush behind them or the blueberries or they hunt for invertebrates. But this is nice to help keep them bulked up and in a healthy weight because, you know, you can’t fully replicate nature no matter what. And even though we live in the natural range of box turtles and a lot of the food sources they would find in these naturalistic pens are normal, you still have to be able to provide for them. And uh this stuff really comes in handy. It’s great. Ah, she got hold of my finger. This cool turtle right here is another one with an amazing history. She belonged to Dr. Peter Pritchard, who is without a doubt the most famous turtle biologist ever in the world. Peter passed away unfortunately several years back, but his work will continue into the future forever. And it is really amazing to have one of his actual turtles. Our friend Maurice Rodriguez from the Turtle Conservancy gave us this pair, uh, McCord’s turtle and Pritchard’s turtle, and they really are special turtles to us, and they’re just loving this. And some of the other ones are coming out now, too. Now, time for the Mexican box turtles. Not unlike the Yucatans, these live in Mexico as well, but the Yucatans are only found in the Yucatan Peninsula. These guys have a type locality of Tamalipus, Mexico. Interesting story about these Mexican box turtles. These were given to us by the Turtle Survival Alliance after they were confiscated by wildlife authorities. They were smuggled out of Mexico illegally, intercepted at a FedEx station in Memphis. Uh, and then they were held at the Memphis Zoo for a little while to get cleaned up and tested for health issues and stuff. And then they were given to the TSA and they placed them with us. And they’ve been doing fantastic. And I actually just got back from last week traveling to Chattanooga, Tennessee, where I spoke about these very turtles at the Turtle Survival Alliance’s annual symposium on the conservation and biology of tortois and freshwater turtles. Look at they’re actually fighting over the food now. Got to give some to the desert box because they’re always patiently waiting. They just pick up the scent of it and then they come running over. There they go. The diversity behind box turtles is amazing. You know, you can tell they’re box turtles by looking at them because they all have that similar structure. And of course, they have the hinge on the plin so that they can close up, but then at the same time, they’re just so different. The deserts look like they belong in a desert environment, but don’t be fooled by that because they are box turtles and they appreciate water. And they will actually spend the majority of their time underground where it’s humid because in the desert it is not humid above ground. The radiated tortois have been hiding under all these thick bushes here because it’s starting to get a little warm and they heat up fast too. They’ve been out since early morning. But if you crouch down, check this out. You can see a bunch of them under here. And one actually just popped out, too. [Music] This pen is a lot of fun to come hang out in because it’s like looking for them in the wild. Oh, unless you’re a wood turtle. There’s a wood turtle right there. [Music] You guys have seen a lot of eastern box turtles on our channel, but what’s interesting about the ones in this pen is they really get to live a wild life. And fun fact about them. While there’s no guarantee yet, we are working with the state of New Jersey to potentially rewild some of these turtles. There’s all disease and genetic testing that they have to go through. But, uh, this repatriation project that’s going on across the country with a lot of different turtle species is starting to show some promising results. It’s nothing that’s going to happen anytime soon. We’re just in the talking stages of it right now. But check it out. This beautiful male eastern box turtle is tucked into this pine litter right here. And it’s I’m sorry. It’s just it’s like you’re just looking at them in the wild. I can’t get enough of this stuff. I love it. Look at these two females. These turtles are so content that even though there are walls around them, it’s such a big pen and it’s so natural. This is literally eastern box turtle habitat. These eastern box turtles are doing exactly what they would be doing in the wild. And that’s because this pen is essentially wild. Even though there are walls around them, it is a massive spacious unit for them. And all we did because this is our property and we happen to live in the natural range of this species, we just fenced it in for them. This is what they do. They’re so content and they’re they’re so healthy and doing well. And I love this. I just love coming through here and exploring. If you know what herping is, going to look for wild reptiles and amphibians. We get to do it every day right here uh at Garden State Tortoise because this is what we aim for. We aim for them to feel like they’re in the wild. You want to talk about trying to find animals in a wild type setting? Here’s the Aquacape ecosystem which is loaded with turtles. And I only see one, which is right here. There we go. One of the leopard tortoises. Not unlike what some of the other tortoises are doing once the sun starts to intensify, they use these tall grasses or any vegetation they can find to stay hidden. They get a little dappled sunlight and let me guess, you’re nice and warm. Very warm. [Music] Savannah, one of the big female leopard tortoises here, stepping on my foot. She’s got a lot of personality. Ow, man. Don’t let a leopard tortoise step on your bare foot. That hurt a lot. We’re actually into the natural nesting season for our leopard tortoises. At least here in this part of the world. This is a species that comes from Africa. Unlike the Mediterranean species that have wrapped up their nesting for the year, they nest May, June, and sometimes into the beginning of July, the leopard tortoises and also the radiated tortoises have just gotten started. So, we will get several clutches from the female leopards and the female radiateds while summer is still around. They actually will still lay eggs during the winter when they’re back inside. And that really contrasts what the Mediterranean tortois are doing cuz at that point, those tortoises are sound asleep underground outdoors here. But of course, leopard tortoises and Madagascar’s radiated tortoises, because of the parts of the world that they come from, they do not hibernate or broomate. So, they have to come inside for a few months. Hi, Bitsy. Bitsy is our adult female sculcata African spareyed tortoise. She’s probably going to be quite upset that I don’t have anything for her. Okay. My gosh, she’s so strong. Okay, I don’t I don’t know where to go. Yes, this tortoise is that strong. I need to get out of this. Oh, please don’t ram me. She’s going to ram me right in the shin. Please don’t ram me. [Laughter] You’re loving this, aren’t you? Figure it out. Oh, Savannah’s going to bite me. Well, this is Am I really getting attacked by two? It’s great footage. Ow. Ow. Ow. Wow. Why are you mad at me? They are the world’s third largest tortoise species. And uh man, she’s really got my leg pinned. And uh the males are even bigger than this. Bitsy is big for a female. Why are you pushing me? Do you need help? Yeah. Yeah. Be careful. Okay. Maybe you should get out of the the grass. Yeah. Scata tortoises are very strong as you guys just got to witness. And their strength isn’t just in what they’re capable to do to you or other tortoises, but these animals can actually break down concrete walls. Our good friends Andrew and Julene out at Arizona Tortoise Compound have actually had some issues with big sculcata tortoises pushing over block walls and through cinder blocks, the whole thing. And on top of that, this species digs extremely deep burrows. They say they can be up to 100 ft in nature. Bitsy has a 10-ft burrow here that’s been filled in a little bit from the tortoises moving around. But it’s also one of the reasons that these tortoises can escape their enclosures. So, if you keep them, make sure you keep tabs on where they’re digging because if they dig towards the outside of the fence, guess what? They’re going to get out. Luckily for us, Bitsy has not done that. She’s usually a joy to work with, except for just now, she has a problem with me being in here. And now Savannah does, too. So, let me let me uh let me wrap this up for you guys. I hope you enjoyed this little unofficial tour of our day-to-day life here with these amazing animals. But, uh, I think they’ve had it with me. [Music] [Music]