When I was talking about adopting a terrapin in my previous post, Jack asked if the terrapins were small enough to be kept inside the house, or whether they’d require more room outdoors.
Perhaps I should have explained that in a little more detail.
Now, when you adopt a terrapin, you don’t get to bring it home because it is a critically-endangered animal. No doubt, it is not a protected species at the moment, but be assured that certain parties are working very hard to get it included in the National Wildlife Act.
So, when you adopt a terrapin, essentially you will be adopting one of the 99 river terrapins that we have released into the Setiu River on 09/09/09. Each river terrapin is equipped with a microchip that enables us to identify each of them individually. Each adoption costs RM 99, and you will be given a Certificate of Adoption which contains your name, the microchip number, weight and shell length and width of your adopted terrapin. If the fishermen in the Setiu River happened to recapture your adopted terrapin, we will update you of its status (weight gain as well as increase in shell length and width) at the end of one year.
After a year, you will be given the option to re-adopt the same terrapin, or you may choose to adopt another terrapin, or not adopt any at all. Perhaps then you’d like to make a donation instead :)
How do I adopt a terrapin?
There are two ways to do it, three if I’m willing to pay for you first, LOL.
- By cheque
Download the Adoption Form (PDF), fill it up and send it to the address indicated in the form, together with your cheque written in favour of “Turtle Conservation Centre”. Your Certificate of Adoption will be sent to the address you provide in the form. - Online transfer
Send an email to cp@turtleconservationcentre.org and you will be given the necessary bank account information. After you have transferred the funds, fill in the online form at the TCC Support Us page. Similarly, your Certificate of Adoption will also be mailed to the address you provide in the online form.
Yes, it’s that simple! :) I have received 20 pledges to adopt a terrapin from family, friends and blogger friends, so if you could spare RM 99 for a good cause, please help us by adopting a terrapin today :) Thank you very much!
Click here for pictures taken during the 5th Terrapin Independence Day on 09/09/09.
In the news:
- Ramadan cheer for captive terrapins @ NST, Sept 11th, 2009
- Chance for river terrapins to survive in the wild @ The Star, Sept 18th, 2009
Very interesting clarification and fascinating post and pictures.
Am I allowed to choose my favourite number (1-99) or a number is given to me randomly?
Microchip numbers are like this: 123-456-789. It’s a 9-digit number and we seldom find 2 consecutive microchip numbers, meaning they’re REALLY random, LOL.
Hi Pelf,
Just transfer the fund to adopt 1 terrapin, though is not much but I am happy to contribute in this campaign :)
Keep on blogging about the terrapin progress ya :D
Yeah, we have received it, Ah Hong. Thank you once again. We seriously need more people like you! We do not expect to raise a lot of funds from one or two persons, but we are also hoping to spread awareness about the plight of the terrapins!
Also, though it isn’t much to you, it means a lot to me, and to the Turtle Conservation Centre :)
Perhaps you’d help us by spreading the words about it too? :)
Yeah. I just help to spread the word around the Facebook. Hope it will create more awareness among the Malaysian.
By the way, can you e-mail few photos that you upload in the Flickr (resize one) particular on the close up shot of terrapin and the release by local people and you?
I will help in spreading the words via my blog with those picture. Thanks :D
OK, I will email you some pictures in a while :)
@Pelf Got your picture. Check it out in my blog http://www.ah-hong.com/environment/save-terrapin-turtle/
Let me know if any of my info not accurate ya :D
Lovely pics. Shows how you are enjoying your work.
Hey Pelf,
Great way to publicise our adoption campaign! Thanks and thank you to all your readers and friends for their support. We still have a long way to go to get all our 99 released terrapins adopted and after that, the ones yet to be released are waiting in line…lol.
That is a pretty neat program. My aunt did something similar once, where we sponsored a pig for a village in Africa. It is neat to be able to give people what they need, rather than what you think they need, because, at least in the case of the pig, this is not a normal sort of donation.
Out of curiosity, how/where do you microchip the turtles?
Yes Steve, you were right about giving people what they need rather than what WE think THEY need :) That’s why we have various outreach programs — to make it easier for donors/sponsors to help us :)
For your information, we used to insert the microchip into the terrapin’s leg. But beginning last year, we insert the chips into the inguinal pockets. There are some explanations and pictures here:
Micro-chipping party, anyone? @ Turtle Conservation Centre
Pelf, got the certification of adoption already. Hope my blog post got direct some donors to Turtle Conservation Center. Just keep me update on TCC program, I believe nature awareness as continuous effort we need to work on :D
This is a nice marketing of the cause using the 09/09/09 date. I was surprised how little I heard about the date in the news. It seemed like 08/08/08 was much bigger.