The Naturalist Report for July - Jonah and His Turtles

Jonah Bowdle and James Anderson from The Marion County Park District joined the show to talk Turtles and what's happening at our Marion County Parks.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Joining me in studio today from theMarion County Park District. We've got Jonah
Bodle and we've got James Anderson.Guys, welcome to the show. Thanks
for being here today, Thanks forhaving us. I'll tell you what we
have a lot to talk about.Jonah. I know you're back this summer
as the summer intern with the MarionCounty Park District, and you've already done
a couple of programs. You've beenout at the fair, you've been meeting

(00:22):
with folks, and you've been bringingyour turtles everywhere you go. Is that
correct. Yeah, I've brought myturtles to a lot of events. Also
my bitter Dragon Richard, and youhave Rubin with you today. Talk a
little bit about Rubin and why youbrought it in today. So Rubin as
a Reddard slider. He's a rescue. All the turtles I have about eight
turtles not a keeping captivity. They'reon they're all rescues. But he is

(00:47):
a captive Reddard slider. Okay,we'll talk a little bit about him and
what you wanted to chat about todayon the show. So he is,
like I said, a captive Reddardslider. But Reddard sliders are native to
Ohio, and in Ohio, ifyou keep native reptiles or birds or game

(01:07):
animals, all kinds of things thatyou need to have a permit. So
I have a permit to keep rubenas well as my other three writered sliders,
and I have two which should amappedturtles as well. But with these
turtles and also with snakes, theylook almost identical to animals just taken from
the wild. So because of that, you have to you have to pit

(01:30):
tag the ones you keep in captivity, and you're only you're only supposed to
keep the ones that have been captive, like raised. If someone takes them
out of the wild, you're notYou're just not supposed to take them out
of the wild whatsoever. That's you'rejust not supposed to do that. If
an animal's injured, a lot ofpeople find turtles that have maybe been hit

(01:51):
by a car or something. Youneed to contact the Ohio Division of Wildlife
and they should be able to setyou up with a like a rescue rehability
person. There's a permit that youcan get to do that, and there's
some training with that. But withthe permit, I have the non commercial
Propagation permit. It allows me tokeep and breed native reptiles. And to

(02:15):
get that, you just go tothe Ohio Division of Wildlife website. You
click the Division of Wildlife, yougo to Wildlife Permits, and then you
scroll down until you get to wildAnimal Propagation Non Commercial. You can also
get the commercial propagate, the commercialpermit which allows you to sell these species.

(02:36):
Okay, but because I don't actuallybreed any native species, I only
breed like exotic species like crusted geckos, I don't have the commercial permit because
I don't sell any native species,right, I get it. So if
somebody ends up at a pet storeand gets a turtle, that's one thing,
But if they are trying to raisethem, that's a whole different story.

(02:59):
Correct. Well, so if theyget a if they go to the
pet store they get a raddered slider, then they need a permit because radared
sliders are considered native. But mostlyI would imagine that pet stores won't sell
like dared sliders or any like likemaybe northern map turtles or spiny soft shell

(03:21):
turtles or snapping turtles because of allthe permits and everything. The reason,
the main reason I don't have thecommercial propagation permit is because if I wanted
to sell native species, the onlyway I could like ethically do that is
to sell people with a permit tokeep native species, which like no one
has like I have. I knowone other person who has the permit because

(03:46):
he breeds Eastern box turtles and hekeeps some radiared sliders and stuff. But
most people who even have radared slidersdon't realize that they're native species and they
need a permit. I got theradared sliders and we should have map turtles
before I knew that I needed topermit, and then I was informed and
I went through the whole process.It's pretty easy. You just do the
application online and then Chad Grow thewildlife officer, he kind of he has

(04:12):
to come and like make sure everything'sgood, like he so as I was
saying, you have to pit tagthe turtles. You can get pit tags
just if you're on the wild AnimalPropagation Non Commercial page. There's a little
link you can order them from theHigh Division of Wildlife. They're like little
rice sized things that you inject intothe turtles body cavity. I did this

(04:34):
for a program the other day attall Grass Trail, we had a couple
of people come out and I actuallypit tagged Rubin, which is why I
brought him here today. And onceyou do that, that pit tag,
it's not like it can just bescanned like. It's not like on a
computer or somewhere like they can liketrack it. It's just something that you

(04:56):
can scan and it relates back toa number that relates back to certificates.
I have certificates for each of myturtles. If someone were to scan them
with the Avid Mini tracker, thenit's gonna tell them, oh, this
is my turtle, like this numberof turtle, and then I guess the
higher divisional Wildlife can relate that backto me. Okay, well that makes

(05:19):
a lot of sense. So you'vebeen doing a lot of programs and you've
been taking your turtles out and around. Um, tell everybody a little bit
about you. You just graduated fromhigh school, You're getting ready to move
on to your next adventure. Howlong have you been raising turtles? Stuff
like that. So I started keepingreptiles in December of twenty seventeen, so

(05:40):
I've been doing it for about sixyears now. Like I said, I
have eight turtles, which like sixof those are native, and then I
have a couple of non native turtles. They're all rescues. So people get
turtles a lot of times, theyget them when they're too small. Unfortunately,
in the United States, you're notsupposed to sell turtles under four inches,

(06:01):
but it takes a while for turtlesto grow over four inches, so
there's kind of a loophole with thatwhere people will sell them for educational purposes
and then you know, you signthe paper whatever. Then you get a
tiny turtle, you don't realize thatit gets huge and needs a massive aquarium,
and it's just there're a lot totake care of. So I started

(06:25):
taking in turtles because I had bigaquariums, and then I started rehoming turtles
that I could to better homes.Just you know, people don't want them
anymore, I'll take them in.I'll find someone who has the proper setups.
I don't do that anymore because it'slike almost impossible to find people who
can sound yeah yeah. So I'veonly done that with well, I have

(06:48):
eight I've kept twenty, so likearound twelve turtles I've found homes for,
but the eight I have Now ifI taken a turtle, now I know
that I'm just going to keep itbecause it's it's really hard to find people
who can actually keep them. Ihave a three hundred gallon stock tank outside
for the summer, and then Ihave in my room I have two one
twenty five gallons fish tanks and aseventy five gallon fish stank that I split

(07:11):
the turtles up during the winter.So about me I started to get into
this. I started with a greeniguana. I still have my green iguana,
so she's like six years old.Now she's doing really well. I
have a bearded dragon. I keepa bunch of geckos. I keep like
I have tokay geckos, gargo geckos, morning geckos, crusted geckos, and

(07:34):
I think that's yeah nice. Ihave Like it ranges with how many I
have, whether it's like like twentyto thirty to forty because I breed them
and I don't always remember. Imean, I take care of them,
but they're all in different enclosures andeverything. So mostly I breed crusted geckos

(07:54):
and then I find homes for themonce I produce them. I also breathe
a bunch of insects, mostly tofeed to the geckos. I breed a
bunch of different species of roaches,and I kind of got into this because
I saw people keeping reptiles on YouTube, like a long time ago, when
I was like fourteen. I dida bunch of research. I got the

(08:16):
green iguana. Then I got intocrusted geckos. I'd always been into fish,
and once I had crusted geckos,I got into roaches. And then
I saw that there were turtles forfree on Craigslist. So I got into
turtles and now I've been keeping themfor super a long time. Now.
You do a bunch of stuff onYouTube yourself? Correct? Yes, So
I have a YouTube channel I alsostarted in twenty seventeen. I have produced

(08:41):
maybe over six hundred videos or something. Not all of them are great,
yeah, but you have quite abit of subscribers and followers, right,
Yeah. So my channel is diyReptiles. I am into woodworking, so
I make a lot of I tryto make a lot of content about how
to properly keep turtles and geckos andeverything in you know, do it yourself

(09:07):
enclosures of thing. I don't alwayslike what's available as far as the reptile
trade goes with the enclosures and everything, because a lot of the times they're
super expensive or maybe they don't actuallyyou know, they don't create really naturalistic
environments for these animals. So Itry to do a lot to create bioactive

(09:28):
enclosures, enclosures that mimic their theirnative range or at least a tropical environment
that would they kind of do moresuccessful. And yeah, So that's what
I've produced on DIY Reptiles and Ihave close to four thousand subscribers. I
think I'm just under four thousand rightnow. Wow, you're doing really well,

(09:50):
James. You're trying to get thatkind of list for your followers.
Are Yes, I'm barely at fourhundred. But you work really hard on
all the different channels that you doas well, and I know you support
everything that that Jonah does absolutely.And James, let's talk a little bit
about the schedule and what's coming up. I know there's a lot of things
happening in the parks. The weather'sperfect for it. Talk a little bit

(10:11):
about what programs you guys have comingup, Yes, for for the month
of August, we have some excitingthings coming up, and sadly, ye
Jonah, he'll be leaving us.It'll be going down to OSU. But
he's got a few programs with usleft for the month. So on the
first, we're doing a prairie planttour at the Beaver Wildlife Area, which
is off a State seven thirty nineheading towards Greencamp, just outside of city

(10:35):
limits. So um, if you'reon a social media keep up the date
of where it is. We havean address for it. On the third,
Jonah is going to be doing hisJonah and Friends at the Tall Grass
Trail the trail head um. Thatwill be from five to six thirty so,
oh real quick. The prairie planttour that's at six o'clock okay.
But then Jonah for his Joanah andFriends. He will bring his reptiles and

(10:58):
birds and maybe some other insects orwhat and just talk about some things that
he has, okay. On thefifth, we have the Kids Day efent
at the Caledonia Square and the bigold downtown Caledonia, so come see us
out there. And then this ye'reactually really excited. I'm working with Mary
no Su trying to get people togo out to their Prairie, which is

(11:20):
there, you know, near theScience Building. So we're doing two programs
this month with them, a prairieplant tour that will be at six o'clock
PM and that's at the Yoder PrairieMary No Su. It's the South Student
Lot three, so again right therenext to the new Science Building. The
night hike that'll be on the eleventh, from nine thirty to eleven. That'll

(11:41):
be at tall Grass Trail, thetrailhead, so it's science in the dark.
Then on the sixteenth, Jonah willbe doing a hike and a plant
identification course. They'll start at thetrailhead again, that's from five to six
thirty. We'll be at the downtownthird Thursday from four to seven, four
to eight ish, so come seeus out there. And then the other
program at OSUM we're going to bedoing another night hike from nine thirty till

(12:05):
eleven and again it will be thereat the prairie, so again meet at
the Lot three. And then morningbird watching on the twenty first, at
eight o'clock in the morning, we'llbe at Tollgrass Trail and the de Cliff
Parking Lot. And then our lastprogram for August is on the twenty eighth
of six o'clock is creaking for crittersat the Teradise Nature for serve. Just
please make sure to wear clothes thatyou don't mind getting wet or dirty,

(12:28):
because guess what we will be goingin the only Tangi River. We've been
very good about people bringing on theproper clothing or that, but we've always
wanted to just let people know,like, hey, we're not going on
edges, we're going actually in andso yeah, no, I get it.
That's great stuff. What's happening inthe parks, James, that people
need to be aware of what thingsare happening right now, besides obviously your

(12:50):
programs and everything like that that maybepeople don't know that's happening. Probably the
one thing is we're getting closer withthe Nature Center building. We just had
our meanings, so it's in away it's sort of pending, but we
should be hearing very soon from thestate. Hopefully construction will start sometime soon.
With everything going on, just it'sbeen a little bit slow. But

(13:13):
then paleontology in the park the Dinosaurof fen September sixteenth, so that's Wayne
Fowler, our one fallunteer he's reallyexcited getting that aboard. So not sure
if the Columbus is coming out againfor that, but we're hoping that they'll
bring their their mascot or their Ninathe Aliosaurus. But other than that,
I mean, we're just that we'rereally excited to provider programs getting back into

(13:37):
schools. Also to you have you'rea teacher, I know school's coming up
here soon, so we go intoschool groups or you guys can come out
to the park of this field trips. And our services are for free within
Marion County, so excellent its offfor that. And where can people get
the information? Obviously you're out onall the socials, so tell everybody how
they can find you. Yes,so if you're on most of the socials,

(13:58):
Facebook, Instagram, a Twitter like, and follow us and keep up
the day when we're doing stuff.Also too, Again, if you're a
teacher and instructor, reach out.You know, showed us a message and
we will definitely get in contact withyou. And we make sure that our
programs meet the curriculum standards, soI know that definitely helps the teachers out
and we definitely do all grade levels, so from kindergarten to twelfth grade,

(14:20):
so they go. Great stuff,James, Jonah, anything else you guys
want to add today, No,well, I guess the one thing is,
you know, you know we've beentalking about wildlife in the past,
so I know we're in the warmseason, but you know the cool season
will be among us. And Iknow, Paul, we've talked this for
many years, but now are someof our slillery friends will be out.
Of course, you know you mayfind a ticker too, so just always

(14:43):
again be cautious. You know whenyou are out there you may encounter wandlife
and like we always say, ifyou leave them alone, they'll leave you
alone. It's their homes. SoI love it. Great stuff Jonah,
Bobda and James Anderson in today fromthe Marion County Park District. If you're
catching this as a podcast, makesure you follow right there where you find
it so that you get a notificationon your phone every time we post another

(15:05):
podcast, which is good stuff.And if you're catching us on the air,
thank you so much for joining ustoday. Yes, thanks for having us