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The National Turtle Sanctuary to open in Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire Wildlife Park has announced it will be opening The National Turtle Sanctuary later on this year.

The Sanctuary marks a collaboration between the park, the National Centre for Reptile Welfare and Cold-blooded Care. The project is also supported by turtle nutrition supplier King British.

The Sanctuary will be home to purpose built ‘pods’ that can house up to 12 terrapins. The pods are expected to be in place by spring 2020, and the sanctuary hopes to house 1,000 varying species of turtles and terrapins in the near future.

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The ‘pod’ programme has been underway since Summer 2019, after the Sanctuary secured “invaluable” funding from King British. 

Andy Ferguson, herpetologist at Lincolnshire Wildlife Park, said: “We’ve had a long term connection with the team down at the National Centre for Reptile Welfare in Tonbridge, and since the centre opened a very large problem for both the centre and our natural habitats was identified very quickly – turtles.

“With such a vast space available to us here, we have the capabilities to provide more than enough space and land for terrapins to be housed, and as we are a sanctuary they will be here to enjoy the remainder of their lives.”

He added: “We would like to express our gratitude to king British for assisting us in the creation of the National Turtle Sanctuary, this sponsorship is invaluable to the project, not only in providing the charity with funds that will enable us to construct stage one of the rehoming centre but ensuring its success with donations from sales during February and March. 

“Whilst the specialist space of a single pod will enable us to initially home up to 12 turtles in need these will, of course require food which King British have also so kindly pledged to us. We send our most sincere thanks to them for being pivotal in the formation of our first of its kind National Turtle Sanctuary.”

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