2023-10-09 08:07:00
With a big blue line, veterinarian Cleopatra Gkika draws a cross on the shell of a turtle that she has just scrupulously examined.
The chalk mark signs the exit ticket for the reptile that survived the fires that ravaged Greece during the summer.
This turtle, like dozens of others burned or injured in the fires, will be released into its natural habitat after several weeks of care in a wild animal refuge in Kalyvia Thorikou, 60 km southeast of Athens.
Behind the young volunteer who is examining other turtles still recovering, the sides of the hill are pockmarked with black, starving trees and charred trunks.
In July, this part of Attica, the region surrounding the Greek capital, was devoured by flames.
In August, Mount Parnes, north of Athens, burned as well as the Dadia natural park in Evros, an area protected by the European Natura 2000 network.
In this region bordering Turkey alone, more than 93,000 hectares were destroyed during this summer of cascading calamities as Greece also suffered devastating floods.
piece of coal
As the flames engulfed vegetation and trees near the capital, volunteers from the NGO “Save your hood” went to rescue turtles, snakes, cats and other animals stuck in the furnace.
“The intensity of the fires was such that there was nothing left. The shrubs were reduced to a piece of coal. Seeing this, we say to ourselves that the animals cannot resist,” sighs Céline Sissler-Bienvenu, in in charge of the emergency relief program during disasters in Europe within the NGO International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW).
And all the more so since the slowness of turtles restricts their ability to escape.
In total, around Athens and on the nearby island of Euboea, 400 turtles were transported to the rescue and first aid center for wild animals of the Greek NGO Anima and to a zoo near Athens.
There, veterinarians and caregivers took care of the injured animals.
burnt shells
“Some turtles had burns on their legs or on their shell, others had breathing difficulties because of the toxic fumes inhaled,” underlines Vassilis Sfakianopoulos, the founder of “Save your hood”.
All had to be immersed in basins of water to be rehydrated and the most alert were placed in an enclosure at the Kalyvia Thorikou refuge.
Since then, they have been subject to careful and regular monitoring.
“When there is no apparent injury, the (veterinary) examination is done by smelling the turtles to detect if they have an internal infection,” explains Cleopatra Gkika, while smearing cream on an animal’s paw.
The latter’s healing is well underway: the skin has shed where it was burned.
Soon the reptile will be able to be released into its natural habitat, as a total of a hundred others were released in September. And it doesn’t matter if there’s not much left of their original environment swept away by the blaze.
“Turtles will slow down their metabolism, they can go without eating for several weeks,” assures Ms. Sissler-Bienvenu. “And at the first rain, they will come out to eat twigs” before their hibernation.
The goal of the keepers is to make them “leave captivity as quickly as possible,” continues the expert. “Because it is an additional stress for these animals which are wild and not social at all to put them all together in an enclosure”.
Turtles are also very attached to their place of life, knowing every nook and cranny, hiding place and watering hole. If they are dislodged, they can react by stopping feeding, for example.
Faced with the dismay of certain turtles, a dull rage consumes Vassilis Sfakianopoulos.
“I find it extremely unfair that no one in Greece is taking care of wildlife since the financial crisis” which hit the country and brought many Greeks to their knees, says this 38-year-old trained engineer.
In these “catastrophic fires” which cause thousands of evacuations of residents and considerable damage, “wild animals are largely forgotten”, also judges Ms. Bienvenu-Sissler.
09/10/2023 08:05:20 – Kaývia Thorikou (Greece) (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
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