Plastic Loggerhead Sea Turtle

The detail on this miniature makes it look like a photo from a magazine!

Our Plastic Loggerhead Sea Turtle

Our small plastic loggerhead sea turtle toy is just the right size replica for your animal life shoebox diorama. This small, loggerhead sea turtle model will fit in a shoe box along with examples of sealife from a Pacific reef. Add a manta ray, tropical fish or jellyfish; create a landscape with rocks, plants, seaweed, make an ocean or reef from anything that strikes your imagination, and there you go - a scene of life on our planet. Our plastic toy loggerhead sea turtle is made of solid plastic and is quite durable. Be sure to take a look at our other sea turtles.

About Sea Turtles

All six species of sea turtles in the U.S. (green sea turtle, hawksbill, Kemp's ridley, leatherback, loggerhead and olive ridley) are listed as threatened or endangered on the U.S. Endangered and Threatened Wildlife List. Sea turtles are aquatic reptiles and live most of their lives in the ocean. Sea turtles are excellent divers, the Leatherback species routinely dive more than 1,000 ft., and may reach depths of more than 3,900 ft. seeking jellyfish. Although they must swim to the ocean surface to breathe periodically, some turtles can remain underwater for as long as 5 hours without breathing! Currently sea turtles are endangered because not only are they hunted by people as a food source, but they are losing their beach habitat to recreational development, drowning in fishing and shrimp nets, and ingesting plastic trash. (Sea turtle research by Joslyn Biggins.)

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

Plastic Galapagos Island Green Turtle

Ask about our special on large orders of this item!

Our Green Sea Turtle

Our plastic green sea turtle measures 2 1/2 inches from nose to tail. "Green turtle" is the species, although this plastic turtle comes in brown. It's not so different from some of the turtles you see in the ocean, as their multi-colored shells are often blanketed with algae and various types of debris that drift onto the rocks and coral reefs in the ocean. Some green sea turtles nest in the Galapagos Islands, far out to sea on the Pacific Ocean side of Ecuador, and we've chosen to call this turtle a "Galapagos sea turtle" because we obtained it along with other Galapagos species of plastic animals. The easy way to find them if you're doing a Galapagos Island diorama or if you collect species from the Galapagos is to type the word "Galapagos" into our site search. You'll find it in the upper right of any of our menu pages or on the main menu page of our gift shop. Be sure to see our other interesting sea turtle toys and gifts.

About Sea Turtles

All six species of sea turtles in the U.S. (green sea turtle, hawksbill, Kemp's ridley, leatherback, loggerhead and olive ridley) are listed as threatened or endangered on the U.S. Endangered and Threatened Wildlife List. Sea turtles are aquatic reptiles and live most of their lives in the ocean. Sea turtles are excellent divers, the Leatherback species routinely dive more than 1,000 ft., and may reach depths of more than 3,900 ft. seeking jellyfish. Although they must swim to the ocean surface to breathe periodically, some turtles can remain underwater for as long as 5 hours without breathing! Currently sea turtles are endangered because not only are they hunted by people as a food source, but they are losing their beach habitat to recreational development, drowning in fishing and shrimp nets, and ingesting plastic trash.

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

Hawaiian Turtles

I wish my underwater photography skill were this good, but actually I took a photo of this beautiful green turtle from a picture hanging in a Hawaiian restaurant. It is swimming at a reef near Kona, perhaps at the famous Captain Cook's Bay. What snorkler or diver does not love to watch turtles paddle around. This one seems annoyed and has turned its back on these nosy, curious humans. Maybe he doesn't have a thick enough shell! (groan)

Tapir and Friends Animal Store has a large selection of realistic plastic sea turtles including several green sea turtles as well as hawksbill turtles and loggerhead turtles.  Also see our large selection of freshwater turtles as well including box turtles.           

by Lee

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

Sea turtle toys

There's a plea on the Biological Diversity Web Site to help save sea turtles. It's alarming the number of animal species that humans have brought to the door of extinction. Turtles, tigers, polar bears, rhinos, elephants . . . they all need our help.

Our organization (the Tapir Preservation Fund) focuses on one animal (four species) - the tapir. But when you focus on a species you also have to think about their habitat and the other animals and plants that depend on that habitat. That brings us to the awareness that we are all interconnected.

If we focus on the essential need to conserve wildlife and biodiversity on the planet, it doesn't much matter which species we champion. We're all in it together. Today we show you the toy turtles that help raise awareness of these amazing animals and their plight. Tomorrow it will be something else. We incorporated to raise and distribute conservation funds to tapir projects because that's our particular focus - but raising awareness and making animal replicas available for kids' conservation projects at school, animal fundraisers, educational institutions, and to people who love and enjoy animals is all part of what we do.

For more information on sea turtles, you can also check out the NOAA web site on marine turtle conservation, or just google "sea turtle conservation."

Toy animals that start with "R"

Ring-tailed lemur starts with "R." The one you see here is our cuddly and popular stuffed ring-tailed lemur. We have ring-tailed lemurs made of plastic, too. Our toy lemurs are among our most sought-after animals!

The obvious "R" animal is rhino. Do we have rhinos? Yes, yes, yes! Check them out in our online gift shop: rhino jewelry (above), plastic rhino models or replicas, and even rhino 3-D puzzles!

This plastic rhinoceros would make a wonderful gift for a rhino-loving child or friend, and would make a nice addition to your realistic animal collection!

So, what's a turtle doing here with the "R" animals? We have two varieties of ridley sea turtles! Believe it or not, we have both the Kemp's ridley turtle above and the olive ridley sea turtle below. They're made of hard plastic and are beautifully-made realistic sea turtle replicas that you can use for school projects, decorations, and much more. Come see them on our site!

Box Turtle Rescue: Partnering with other conservationists ~ Earthshine Mountain Lodge, Lake Toxaway, NC, USA

Photos copyright by and courtesy of

Earthshine Mountain Lodge

Conservation is such an important issue, we partner with other conservation organizations and movements whenever possible. The other day, we received this heartwarming letter from Steve O'Neil:

I am a naturalist and wildlife rehabilatator at a small environmental education facility called Earthshine Mountain Lodge in western North Carolina. I am working to educate our guests on the plight our planet's wildlife is facing due to human encroachment into their habitats as well as habitat destruction and fragmentation locally and worldwide. Last year I started an Eastern Box Turtle rescue and rehabilitation program for turtles injured on roads and those that have lost their habitats due to over development. We currently have two large outdoor habitats with 4 non-releasable turtles and one waiting to be released. We are also participating in a statewide project called the Box Turtle Connection that is trying to learn why the box turtle is declining in numbers throughout the state.

For this project we are censusing and marking all the wild turtles we find and tracking 4 wild turtles using micro-radio transmitters. Guests at the lodge learn about turtles through special programs and guided turtle tracking hikes and through the website linked below. We fund most of our project on donations and therefore we are on a tight budget when it comes to purchasing equipment and educational aids, so if you are interested you may "adopt" a turtle to help support the program.

Below is a link to the Earthshine Nature website that covers our nature and box turtle projects:
http://www.geocities.com/thesolorover/earthshinenaturepages

The main Earthshine site can be found here:
http://www.earthshinemtnlodge.com/

Thank you,
Steve O'Neil
Naturalist/Environmental Educator/Wildlife Warrior
Earthshine Mountain Lodge
Lake Toxaway, NC
www.earthshinemtnlodge.com
(828) 606-8939

-----------------------------

The Tapir Preservation Fund realized we could help out by donating certain plastic turtles to their gift shop that fit better with their programs than with ours. We also broke one of our cardinal business rules and gave out a couple of contacts. Sure, we need to make some money for the tapirs, but conservation efforts such as Steve's are extremely important to all of us and to our planet. We believe in working together to preserve nature in its entirety for everyone. Please check out the links above. Have you ever thought of vacationing in a gorgeous setting in green North Carolina? Think about it! Or make a donation.

All the best,

Sheryl

Plastic sea turtles make a big splash!

Sorry, I basically hate punny headlines. My fingers made me do it!

Thanks Sheryl!

The package arrived today - YIPPEE! My third grader is doing a project on the Leatherback Sea Turtle and we were thrilled when we found a site where we could buy "plastic" turtles. We are making a habitat and they are going to work out great! I will definately keep you in mind in the future as this is the first of many projects to come!

Thanks again for your prompt and professional service! It was a pleasure doing business with you!

Have a good day!

Kathy