Giri
adult male Olive Ridley turtle, admitted 28 August 2024, Maalifushi, Thaa Atoll, Maldives
Giri is an adult male Olive Ridley that was found floating in Maalifushi (Thaa Atoll). Upon arrival, the animal presented a spontaneously-amputated front right flipper (completely healed), considerable algal growth on the carapace, was hypoglycemic and mildly dehydrated.
After receiving fluid therapy with dextrose, followed by a shell deep clean to further investigate presence of wounds, the animal was transferred to a recovery tank. Once in the water, the turtle was immediately active but with altered buoyancy (central positive), displaying ~40% of shell out of the water column. Giri has shown a great appetite since his arrival.
September Updates
Giri has been quite active this month. He is eating a lot and showing good swimming skills. However, his diving has not improved and he still has an altered buoyancy (central positive). Enrichment activities and diving exercises during feeding will continue during the upcoming weeks.
October
Giri has been quite active this month, but has developed an abrasion on the right marginal scutes from repeatedly hitting the tank while attempting to dive. We are currently cleaning the wound and treating it with photobiomodulation. The treatment protocol includes infrared and red light therapy, combined with green and blue laser therapy, to promote healing and prevent infection.
November
Giri has been quite active this month. He remains buoyant, but continues trying to dive to get food. This month, we started weight therapy, hoping that it will help his buoyancy syndrome. Thanks to the photobiomodulation treatment, the abrasion on the right marginal scutes is now healed.
December
Giri health has remained the same. He is trying to dive to get food morsels, but is still buoyant. With external target weight therapy, daily dive trainings, and environmental enrichment we hope to see progress in his buoyancy.
January 2025 Updates
Giri has been quite active this month. He is trying to dive to reach his food morsels on the pool floor, but remains positively buoyant. Daily dive training and environmental enrichment will be continued, and we hope to see progress in his turtle buoyancy syndrome.
February
Giri is active but still buoyant. We are continuing his daily dive training and environmental enrichments in his recovery pool.
March
Giri has been very active and is trying to dive for food, though he remains buoyant. Daily dive training and environmental enrichment continue in the hope of improvement.
April
Giri has been quite active this month. He is attempting to dive for food but remains buoyant. Daily dive training and environmental enrichment will continue in hopes of improving his buoyancy.
May – July
Giri has been quite active. He is trying to dive to get the food but is still buoyant. A weight has been re-attached to the carapace, and daily observations will be made to see a potential improvement in buoyancy. Daily dive training and environmental enrichment will also be continued hoping to see progress in Giri’s buoyancy.
August
Giri’s health remains good. He is active and attempting to dive for food, but he is still buoyant. A carapace weight was re-attached; daily observations, dive training, and enrichment continue in hopes of improvement.
September
Giri has been quite active this month. He is trying to dive to get his food but is still buoyant. A weight has been re-attached on his carapace, and daily observations will be made to see a potential improvement on buoyancy. Daily dive trainings and environmental enrichment will also be continued with hope to see progress in Giri’s buoyancy.
October
Giri has continued his therapy for buoyancy syndrome, and we’ve seen some improvements! Although the therapy process can be really long, little by little our gentle Giri keeps improving. we will keep monitoring the progress of our kindest turtle, and hope his progress continues so we can return him to the ocean.
November
We’ve continued Giri’s buoyancy syndrome therapy. For the treatment, we placed a weight on the more buoyant side of his carapace, which helps him to be more balanced due to uneven air distribution in his shell. The weight also allows more of his carapace surface to be submerged which, over time, promotes the release of trapped air. We’ve also performed an air extraction, removing over 2 litres of air. We’ll continue this treatment throughout December because of the promising results!
December
We’ve been continuing Giri’s buoyancy syndrome therapy. For the treatment, we placed a weight on the more buoyant side of our turtle which helps him to be more balanced due to uneven air distribution in his shell. The weight also allows more of his carapace surface to be submerged which, over time, promotes the release of trapped air. We’ve also performed an air extraction, removing over 2 litres of air. We will continue this treatment throughout December because of the promising results!
January 2026 Updates
For another month, we’ve continued Giri’s buoyancy syndrome therapy. We placed a weight on the more buoyant side, which helps him to be more balanced due to uneven air distribution in his shell. The weight also allows more of his carapace surface to be submerged which, over time, promotes the release of trapped air. We hope to continue seeing progress in him into next month.
February
This month, we have incorporated target-training for Giri as a mentally stimulating enrichment, promoting his diving by going down to touch in order to receive food. Although his buoyancy syndrome treatment is stable, it is not progressing and other measures are being taken for finding a permanent solution. If he is unreleasable, there are plans to send him to an aquarium, which target-training will help prepare him for.
March
Giri has remained stable throughout the month, with no significant changes in condition and no notable progress in therapy.
April
Giri has remained stable, with no significant changes in condition and no notable progress in therapy.
May
Giri has remained stable throughout the month, with no significant changes in her clinical condition. At the same time, we have continued working on identifying a suitable long-term home for him, with several aquarium facilities under consideration as potential candidates. The primary challenge at this stage is obtaining the government permits and legal authorisations required for an international relocation. Once these administrative requirements have been addressed, we hope to move forward with selecting the most appropriate institution for Giri’s long-term care.
June – July
Giri has remained stable throughout the month, with no significant changes in condition and no notable progress in therapy.
August
Giri remains stable. He developed a slight increase in buoyancy on his right side, so we performed an air extraction procedure, which was very successful and resulted in a noticeable improvement. We will repeat the therapy next month to continue improving his buoyancy and overall condition.
