It’s a repeated story… In fact, for 25 years, it is almost always the same story. However, every time it is different and every time it is very special – because it is a story about saving lives, about trusting the Future, about helping to protect a species and, of course, it is a story of rebirth, because it is crucial that we never forget the importance of having a second chance at life. This is, therefore, the new chapter in the story of Tulio, Terrapin, Thankful, Tintin, Teteia, Thunder and Tolstoy, the 07 magnificent tortoises that, on the 19th October, will receive a “medical discharge” and return to the wild, in one of the margins of the Odeleite dam.

Their origins are distinct, as are the sizes, weights and reasons for the 07 rescues and inherent care and/or rehabilitation processes – but, in common, they have their conservation status (inseparable from the species Mauremys leprosa, Mediterranean terrapin), the passage (shorter or longer) through Zoomarine’s Porto d’Abrigo and, of course, the need to integrate breeding groups, or were they not members of an endangered species.

This collective return, due to the strong and dramatic reduction of water mirrors in the Algarve landscape, will take place this Wednesday morning, in one of the margins of Odeleite Dam, based on a reiterated cooperation between Zoomarine and ICNF – Instituto da Conservação da Natureza e das Florestas, the entity that oversees the national network of burrows, of which Zoomarine is a co-founder member, since exactly 25 years ago.

Contrary to Salina, the sea turtle that has been traveling around the Mediterranean Sea for 3 months(*), the progression of these 07 turtles cannot be remotely followed – however, the largest of these 07 magnificent ones will carry a microchip that may allow us, one day, to understand their growth and, eventually, what other destinations they have chosen.

Until then, there will be, at Zoomarine, some more tortoises whose rehabilitation process cannot be considered finished yet – but as Porto d’Abrigo do Zoomarine works 24/24 hours/day, 365 days/year, this “home” will continue to be, until the arrival of spring heat, the refuge of a small but very special family… who doesn’t know it, but must be protected as if it were!

And as it is as a family that we will spend this winter, in mutual encouragement and protection, it will be together that we will look forward to the next return, since TOGETHER WE PROTECT – “Together We Protect”.