Nature Center REVEAL | 10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY!!

hey everybody welcome back today marks the 10-year anniversary of garden state tortoise we can't believe it's been 10 years this has been the most incredible life so far and you know even though i've personally been involved in reptiles my entire life pushing like 30 years now to date myself uh it's just incredible for garden state tortoise to have been around a full 10 years and to just support our lives and and the whole nine i can't thank everybody enough because none of this would be possible without the support of the community and every organization we work with every agency we work with and everybody that we interact with from friends to acquaintances and of course our families it's just been one hell of a ride so without further ado on this 10th anniversary we as a family would like to introduce you guys to our newly finished nature center [Music] welcome to the newly finished nature center here at garden state tortoise so we never really came up with a name for this place we've called it the barn since we moved here and bought this place because it is in fact a pole barn that we insulated and finished and it's gone through a lot of different versions you know but it's finally like a fully functioning building right yeah it's been a long time coming so um we've always called it besides calling it the barn our little nature room so i don't know at some point we'll put up a sign and actually give it an official name i like the nature room or the nature barn you know but you guys can leave all of your ideas in the comments for us because we've been going back and forth on this and chewing on it for a while and we just can't really come up with something that clicks we want something kind of clever but you know maybe simplicity is best with this thing you know so the nature center is home to educating anybody who comes here about american herpetology so it features a lot of live reptiles a couple amphibians and it's chock full of reptile and amphibian memorabilia and there's some bones and skulls and shells of animals and it's just something that i have always dreamt about having you know casey can tell you i i love nature centers i love going to him so anytime we would go to a state park i flock to the nature center well not just that you you love north american wildlife through and through not just even herpetology i do i love north american wildlife um obviously you guys know i have an appreciation for turtles and tortoises from all over the world as well as any wildlife out there i love it all but when it comes to the american stuff particularly the northeastern stuff it's what i grew up on so i'm sure there's a lot of nostalgia i play there but it is my ultimate favorite and for me it really can't be beat so that's what this is dedicated to there's a lot of new jersey wildlife in here um a lot of educational pieces on that as well as some other pretty iconic herps that come from other parts of america like florida for example texas texas california so we're going to take you around the room and show you the different exhibits we even had signs made up acrylic signs casey designed them casey really did all the decorating in here um and of course this is a family effort my father had a lot to do with it yeah you know so um yeah you know anything you want to add uh we're also going to meet the terrapins for the new pond that's getting built so that's exciting cece's named a couple of them yep let's get started so we have actually been working on this little nature room for over a year now it's like i said earlier it's something that i've always wanted to have i always flock to nature centers even like the little hole in the wall ones i just love every single one of them as long as they're taking care of the animals that they have in it correctly so what started off in here were these snake enclosures and i have to give a huge shout out to my father who has always always helped me ever since i was a little boy and he actually got together with my brother-in-law and my uncle and they put these custom snake enclosures together they're made out of melamine or melamine however you want to say it and these are sliding glass doors and every single thing about them is custom except for some of the decor that we bought but even these backdrops that you'll see in all of these snake units are actually photos that casey and i took out in wild habitat and we had them printed onto corrugated plastic signs glued them to the back of the enclosure and there you go it gives like a naturalistic setting so you know this is a shot out in the pine barrens well here are pine snakes which are of course native to the pine barrens i know a lot of you normally associate us with turtles and tortoises but snakes are a big part of our lives and it's actually what i do for my day job any of you who do not know by now i am a biologist assistant herpetologist by day and i work with snakes in the field so one of the things that we wanted to do is we wanted to have custom signs made up of each and every species that we have in here on display maybe one day we can do this with all the big outdoor exhibits but for now we've got these nice acrylic signs we took our own photos just some simple basic information on them and then up top here are some beautiful photos that i was fortunate enough to capture out in the field of wild snakes native new jersey snakes and again not everything in here is from new jersey but it is all from america so you know there's a california king snake right here there's a gray banded king snake in here and outer banks king snake in there just a couple examples there's also plenty of artwork on the walls a lot of it is done by our favorite artist matt patterson over at stoneridge art studios for some of his work sorry for the glare you guys get the uh gist and then of course we went with just some old-fashioned good tank setups and i'll come back to these guys right here when we meet the terrapins of the aquascape ecosystem because this happens to be some of them in here of course you can't have a nature center without a good library on the subject casey really went to town with all of these beautiful string lights everywhere that's one of my favorite my two favorite things about this entire nature center was doing the signs and all the string lights i just think it really gives it that warm feeling in here so over there that's a rough green snake enclosure and this is mud and musk turtles of the united states we've got four different types in here we've got the stink pot the common musk we've got the razorback musk the eastern mud and of course the striped mud turtle got a little eastern milk snake in here she's hiding of course some of these turtles unfortunately did not get to live full lives because of men but they're here to tell the story still by having their shells on display and as well as some of their natural predators up here here's a sign that casey made herself welcome to the pines with a pine snake here's our little indoor spotted turtle exhibit now you guys know that we have a big spotted turtle enclosure outdoors but uh this little animal is uh an animal that has never been around other turtles before she was a rescue found states out of range so she's on display in here she lives comfortably she's got a cute little personality what did you name her dot so you're fessing up to the fact that you need a spotted turtle dot or dottie or dottie okay oh that that makes it more sophisticated it is a great name i think it's perfect over here you guys got to see this whole enclosure come together this is iris our texas tortoise where's iris is she hiding oh she's down there sleeping we won't pull her out she doesn't want to be out right now but iris was a rescue we adopted her from the colorado reptile rescue she was found wandering in colorado but she belongs in texas folks and here is the beautiful setup that casey made for a backdrop thanks case and you know there's a lot of knickknacks and stuff in here but this you guys got to see come together in a couple videos this is the indoor painted turtle pond it features all four types of painted turtles found in the united states and casey put together an awesome sign detailing the painted turtles of the usa she even made her own little range map using all the garden state tortoise color combos so you can meet all four of them in here the girls love coming out here and feeding them here's a couple of them basking right now it's a midland painted turtle to the right and a western painted turtle to the left this pond has been doing amazing crystal clear water the turtles are having an absolute blast in it so again united states reptiles and amphibians uh particularly new jersey though that that's really where my heart is you know again i grew up with this stuff so a lot of things to do with new jersey are just my favorite and one of those things that i love is the jersey devil cathy ann english who's a great artist she's done a lot of jersey devil stuff so we actually have a whole jersey devil bathroom theme going on in the downstairs of our house is pretty cool fun color scheme but she's done a lot of cool photos of the jersey devil appearing in different things in south jersey so i made sure to add one of those out here and i've also got some other jersey double signs up and there's a map of the area that we live there's even a little icon of him on there which is cool but to explain some of the other things that are in here everything has basically a personal meaning to me especially when it comes to the animal stuff and this rattlesnake skin right here is the actual skin of a live male rattlesnake that i trained on when i joined new jersey fish and wildlife venomous response team um which helps you know get venomous snakes out of harmful situations and to educate the public on trying to downgrade their irrational fears of them um and all these photos are photos that were taken of snakes that i work with in the field um again there's a lot of artwork from matt patterson and uh turtle shells and all kinds of stuff like that you've got a bird nest up there on a little piece of driftwood and of course my girls had to paint some fake snakes for me or as ellie our youngest likes to call them scakes so i made sure to have these out here too and you know this is going to be a little area for casey and i to just kind of wind down too got a pick of cards out here we got a fridge full of beer and uh this is gonna be our hangout it's not gonna be open to the public of course but when we have events like what's starting right now this huge epic aquascape ecosystem build there's gonna be over probably over 100 people here all total between family and stuff that'll get to experience this room and you know that's why the signs are so important is that people can actually educate themselves on each animal that's on display in here as well as learn to appreciate them i'm sure there's going to be plenty of people that are normally afraid of snakes but maybe they'll learn to appreciate the beauty of them too while they're here okay so one other thing we're gonna do today is uh we're gonna introduce our terrapins our rescue terrapins right yeah and did you help name them yeah yeah what are their names [Music] yellow and raya yeah yeah okay so we'll uh we'll get to show you guys uh so we have some juveniles and we have some adults that are going to go into the aquascape ecosystem that's being built here and help to celebrate our uh anniversary right can you buy them so in this very tank right here are some of the terrapins that are going to be going into this aquascape ecosystem build and if you guys have been watching the process of this going so far this is going to be the first ever of its kind it's specifically designed to house diamondbacks it's of course going to have features that don't replicate their wild habitat because it's you know not natural it's being built by man so there's certain things that have to come into play that uh secure the pond in place all kinds of stuff like that will that we'll describe later but these are some of the terrapins these are the younger terrapins that are on display here in the nature room um i would say about three of them are just about you know of size to go in with the adult terrapins whereas one is still lagging behind but this tank is important because it will continue to house terrapins that we get that are younger uh until they are upsized to go in with the adults because the adults can be pretty powerful and aggressive if you know anything about diamondbacks you know that so you can see three of them right now one is basking up top but he is he or she is coming down right now all four of these terrapins in here basically have the same story they were taken by somebody when they were hatchlings whether the person knew that was illegal or not we don't know one of them was actually found in a parking lot um we think that that that they try somebody tried to let it go um after they realized they couldn't care for it anymore and one of it was a rescue call they thought it was a wild terrapin i think it was wild at some point but somebody had probably kept it about a year or so it actually had a pretty pliable shell and it should have been hard so the animal was definitely i think suffering a little bit from metabolic bone disease yeah you can tell um well we can tell right away whether or not the terrapin has been um you know kept indoors in a not natural habitat just by looking at them so we were able to figure that one out so lucky for these guys or girls you know i think most of them are females you know which is pretty common um they're doing fantastic you know this is actually the one that casey was just telling you guys about and she had a very soft shell she was in pretty rough shape but she's rock solid now and like i said she's definitely about ready to go into this aquascape pond um the rest of them i'd say maybe this one is ready to go the other two are still pretty small here's here's the smallest one he's just been hanging out up here you know this one we actually caught people in the act they had taken it from maryland and they were trying to release it here in new jersey uh after raising it in captivity so they saw um the wild terrapins crossing the road so they just assumed that they could let this terrapin go in the road and uh it was like a mile still from water gosh they just dumped it right on the road so he was able to to stop them so that's that's good so yeah these are the younger ones these are going to be joining the bigger ones in the new uh ecosystem and this tank will always be here because let's face it this is going to keep happening there's going to confiscation surrenders and weird stories like this guys yeah all right so let's meet the adult diamondback terrapins of the aquascape ecosystem and again these each have their own story a couple came together in case you want to grab somebody and we'll tell the story here we go so this is pickles she was a confiscation she was intercepted at an airport she was destined for hong kong whether they were gonna eat her or sell her for a lot of money we don't know but uh she's been a bit of a challenge she suffered a lot of shell rot skin rot you could see some patches on her but we've had her since 2017 and things have really gotten under control with her because she was in really bad shape and she was named by an elementary school i did a uh like a zoom talk for them a couple years ago and uh they broadcasted me to the entire class and i asked the kids to name her and they decided to name her pickles so that's her story i think it's great it's good right yeah she's a wonderful terrapin and she's really been through a lot so she's been hanging on and she's going to finally get that really happy ending by getting to live in just an amazing setup she's a beautiful turtle so this guy he might want to grab his brothers there we don't know if they're brothers these are our most recent rescues these were surrendered to a zoo we are affiliated with and we're closely with the popcorn park animal refuge we do all the turtle rescue for those guys they're like family to us and these three terrapins same deal as the ones indoors were collected as hatchlings illegally raised up in fresh water and while these two well that one and this one are pretty solid looking this guy we don't know if this was a deformity from hatching or if it was the way he was raised but he's just he's just completely dented in on the top there where his vertebrals are he swims a little weird but he is a strong swimmer so we think he'll do well in the pond and what else here this gal she's a pretty girl huh yeah i believe if i remember correctly this big girl is also another maryland terrapin again taken as a hatchling raised in a fish tank um she's actually got a slightly bumpy shell because she really wasn't fed the best stuff but she is a super inquisitive super healthy turtle just look at how beautiful yeah look at her gray yeah she's just she's just immaculate looking and she's such a classic example of the northern diamondback terrapin really big turtle casey's you've seen quite a few big terrapins out there much bigger than this one well maybe not much bigger but you know but you know you're feeding the tarp in the wrong thing when it actually gets a little bit pyramid as if a tortoise would be so but again healthy thus far you know fortunately we don't know if much is going on internally with these animals but you know we're keeping them as healthy as we can this one what's the story with this one this one came from somebody that you knew from somebody forgot is this the one that uh came to us from oh my gosh is it keanesburg this one's from somebody found it in a parking lot in a retirement home so this one's from after a storm there must have been like flooding and uh they found her when she was younger and they you know they kept her for a while kept her in a nice clean tank but you know everybody reaches their point where they can't care for them anymore well then you know they don't realize that they're not they don't realize that they they should be left alone they don't realize that they're in their native habitat even though to some people it seems so weird that they're finding these things you know but yeah they really really should be left alone you know if you find a terrapin hatchling somewhere chances are you are actually in that animal's native habitat you should take it over to the salt marsh and release it into the grasses where it can root down in and stay safe from predators like birds so between these six adults and the four younger ones in the barn we've got 10 terrapins ready to go for this ecosystem and we do word on the street is that there is a couple more coming to us after this pond is built this pond is going to be massive it's going to be able to house more than 10 because unfortunately these kinds of situations are probably not going to stop anytime soon so 10 whole years of garden state tortoise right and me and you that's right that's right we began and then garden state tortoise began so here we are 10 years later uh we are i think the most fortunate family in the world a little more wrinkly a little gray no neither one was not really gray yet no wrinkles though yeah stress wrinkles stress wrinkles yes yes but we are the most fortunate family in the world oh my gosh unbelievable life to be able to raise our kids right next to our our turtles and tortoises and get to do what we love every day and our steaks there's cakes the fact that our girls are taking a liking to the animal world and biology for that matter they're not afraid of anything our four-year-old has a million questions about how how everything works and what's it made out of yep um yeah i i don't know what to say except thank you you know you you guys have supported us along the way and uh you know we're a little newer to the youtube game but we're really getting the hang of it i think uh and we're gonna keep doing this stuff for you guys so here's to another 10 years and you know our yard right now looks like a landscape supply center because uh everything's here all the material has been delivered all of the machinery is here because right now everyone and their mother is here to start building like i said the first ever of its kind the title aquascape ecosystem for those diamondback terrapins that came from pretty unfortunate situations but are now going to get to have one hell of a life before we go something you guys should be very aware of is this one right here the multi-talented super wife she's not just mother to two little girls and mother to a ton of animals that we keep here at garden state tortoise but she's also the guru for disney and a travel agent for disney and an amateur cook and an amateur cook but pretty professional to me so um yeah i'll be starting my own youtube channel um probably after all this stuff settles down after this weekend they're hoping to throw a couple of videos up on my youtube channel called the travelorian it'll be about our animal adventures our vacation adventures and uh our home decor and design hopefully i get that up and running soon i've been a little busy around here but all exciting stuff get ready we're going to cover this entire process you're going to get to see more of the nature center you're going to get to see more of everything summer has only just begun so as always please don't forget to subscribe click the bell icon for notifications so you know when we post something check out the new store because again super wife here what hey i'm bragging about you what do you want you could brag about me sometimes you know i do brag about you she created a 10-year anniversary design for us which is now available right here on our youtube channel go to the store at the top of our page check it out hopefully you'll like it please pick one up your support goes directly into everything we do here so thank you guys for watching and here's to 10 more years

Channel: Garden State Tortoise

Views: 24,799

Keywords: Nature center, reptile room, turtle room, snake room, turtle conservation, reptile care, turtle care, reptile house, turtle, snake, tortoise, herpetoculture, Herpetology, reptile education, wildlife display, wildlife center, Aquascape, turtle pond, Diamondback terrapin, Malaclemys terrapin, turtle rescue, reptile rescue

Id: lGPgI5XFe_g

Length: 23min 18sec (1398 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 11 2021