Shaka Doug
Contributor
Aloha....
Does anyone know anything about the dead sea turtle in the cave at Five Caves? It's been there for a while now... at least a couple of weeks. I thought it would have either decomposed or been eaten by worms and scavengers by now but it's taking a long time. It appears that it suffered from the papilloma virus and maybe the entire body was full of the tumors / growths. The site of it is pretty ugly and the shell has broken into many pieces. Some bones are piling up and they resemble moose antlers.
Is it illegal to collect the bones? Would there be any chance of transferring the virus from this dead animal to living turtles (or humans)? Anyone have any thoughts?
Mahalo!
Shaka Doug
Does anyone know anything about the dead sea turtle in the cave at Five Caves? It's been there for a while now... at least a couple of weeks. I thought it would have either decomposed or been eaten by worms and scavengers by now but it's taking a long time. It appears that it suffered from the papilloma virus and maybe the entire body was full of the tumors / growths. The site of it is pretty ugly and the shell has broken into many pieces. Some bones are piling up and they resemble moose antlers.
Is it illegal to collect the bones? Would there be any chance of transferring the virus from this dead animal to living turtles (or humans)? Anyone have any thoughts?
Mahalo!
Shaka Doug