Russell

juvenile Olive Ridley turtle, admitted 28 July 2024, Amilla Fushi, Baa Atoll, Maldives

Russell is a juvenile Olive Ridley turtle, found washed ashore on Amilla Fushi on 28 July, and transferred to Landaa the same day. His injuries are consistent with entanglement in ghost gear, including an amputated front left flipper and partially healed laceration injuries to the front right flipper. When placed into a deep tank, it became evident that Russell has a slight case of buoyancy syndrome and limited movement in his front right flipper (which could be indicative of a fracture). We are exploring X-ray options for further investigation.

Russell has been active so far, moving relatively well around the tank, and his laceration injuries have healed incredibly well so far, with only minor pockets remaining on both front flippers, and a small amount of bone exposure on the left front flipper stump. We will be monitoring and debriding these injuries regularly to promote further rapid healing.

Turtle rescue and rehabilitation centre Maldives RUSSELL

August Updates

Russell has had a consistently good appetite since his admittance, initially eating only prawns and either spitting out or shredding fish when offered, but he now also regularly consumes all fish offered. This has led to an impressive weight gain of +2kg from his initial weight of 14.6kg on admittance.

Russell’s injuries have shown improvement with regular debridements; his left front flipper stump is now showing a greater area of healed, pink, healthy tissue but there is regularly lots of tissue needing debriding on each occasion. His front right flipper shows a slightly improved range of motion compared to the time of admittance and the laceration injury appears to be narrowing (but Russell still struggles with mobility).

The greatest improvement has been to Russell’s plastron – the majority of which originally demonstrated significant abrasion injury with large areas of bone exposure. Following the removal of dead tissue, it became clear that healing is well on the way for the majority of this area, with new soft tissue growing well that has already begun the pigmentation process. It will still take a significant period of time for this tissue to harden and deposit keratin, so we will continue to monitor and debride the smaller areas which still require it.

September

Russell’s appetite has declined this month; on many days, he has been shredding all offered fish and consuming very little. This seems to occur more frequently when he is offered tuna, although he has also demonstrated this behaviour with white fish. This has led to a slight decline in weight from 16.6kg to 16.0kg over this month. Careful observation will be made regarding this in the coming weeks, to determine whether there is a firm pattern to his behaviour with regards to food preferences.

Russell’s injuries have continued to improve; his left front flipper stump now produces less tissue requiring debridement, and the healthy tissue has begun to pigment around the borders. His right flipper injury is almost fully healed; it shows healthy skin tissue along its full length, but there remains a deficit which has not yet been filled in. Range of motion in this flipper has significantly improved this month, but it remains somewhat abnormal; he still struggles with forward motion and has shown no attempts to dive.

As with last month, the greatest improvement has been to Russell’s plastron – the most recent debridement revealed complete coverage by healthy soft tissue, significant pigmentation of the new tissue and the beginnings of keratinization.

October

Russell’s front right flipper mobility has shown great improvement and as a result, he has become increasingly active this month, chasing after food with enthusiasm and can even be encouraged to attempt diving via feeding from beneath the surface. But he can only reach down by a few centimetres, mostly via neck extension, but we hope with practice and time this will improve. There has been no change in his buoyancy at rest.
Russell continues to spend the majority of his time swimming forward against the glass window of his tank, and as a result, the area of swollen tissue on his beak remains large. In an effort to address this stereotypical behaviour, the enrichment toys have been swapped more frequently. On 25 October, he was given a palm frond for further enrichment, and has taken to using it as shelter while resting.

November

Russel health continues to improve. Although his buoyancy syndrome has remained unchanged over the last few weeks, we are seeing definite progress in the mobility of his remaining front flipper. The movement still lacks significant power but is increasing in range of motion and, as a result, Russel is becoming increasingly agile. As all his injuries have healed, he will continue rehabilitation in the sea pen in the near future.

December

Russell spent two weeks in our lagoon enclosure, but unfortunately the extra space to swim and dive yielded no improvements in buoyancy. The area of inflamed soft tissue on his beak did begin to regress during this time. He was brought back to our normal recovery pools on 26 December to allow Jimmy further use of the facility.

January 2025 Updates

Russell has demonstrated no change in his buoyancy this month. Since returning to Landaa, the swelling on his beak has significantly increased in size as a result of frequently swimming into the tank’s glass window. He was transferred to the sea pen on 26 January, with far more space to swim around. We hope his health will improve over time.

February

Russell has spent the entirety of February in the sea pen. He has shown no changes in his buoyancy, and has not been observed attempting to dive. The soft tissue swelling on Russell’s beak is improving slowly, decreasing in size by 50%.

March

Russell returned from the ocean enclosure on 15 March to make room for Thari. He has adapted well to a smaller tank, and nasal swelling is minimal. Stereotypical behaviours have not returned. As buoyancy issues persist, external weight therapy will be trialled next month.

April

Russell has demonstrated no change in his condition since his return from the sea pen last month. He still attempts to dive after food briefly but soon gives up.

Turtle Olive Ridley ocean enclosure RUSSELL

May Updates

Russell’s condition remains the same, with a great appetite and high energy. Russell is actively trying to dive for food but remains positively buoyant.

June

This month, weights were attached to Russell’s carapace with the aim of helping him dive. He actively tries to dive for food but remains positively buoyant. Initially, we attached 0.5kg to his carapace. After one week, the weight was increased to 1kg. Next month, we will gradually increase the weight and assess the degree to which his diving ability improves.

July

We have increased the weights attached to Russell’s carapace to 2kg. He is still not diving but he continues trying to swim. We will try different methods to encourage him to dive, like presenting the food deeper in the pool.