Blake Shelton, Turtle Killer?

Shelton is an entertainer known for supporting conservation (at least the hunting and fishing kind) in his home state of Oklahoma. He has over a million Twitter followers and is admired by young people across the country. And this is the example he chose to set yesterday. His arrogance after being called on it is disgusting. He needs to publicly apologize, and a hefty donation to Partners in Amphibian and Reptile Conservation (PARC) and/or or other turtle conservation groups wouldn't hurt. Some of his fans are taking his side, but most seem shocked. Here are some of the reply (in bold) comments from Shelton:

"@bjkingape: That turtle's life meant something- was your tweet a bad joke? Why would you be so cruel to a living being?” Shut up...

Yes. He just told a fan to shut up.

"@ohnoelizabeth: So you mean it's okay to kill innocent animals just because you donated money?” Sweety.. The adults are talking right now..

Hey @turtlefeed.. I solely have raised over a million dollars in animal rescue/conservation alone... How much have you raised? Oh. Ok. Next!

"@MaxTerrepene: My family has raised more than a million for conservation and we don't kill wildlife. Beat that one!” I do. And eat them.

What an ass. Boycott Shelton's records, his appearances (including NBC's The Voice), and his sponsors. This guy's 15 minutes are about up.


Update:  Buzzfeed just posted good coverage of this--with way more tweets than I was able to find--here.  His Facebook page is heating up too.

Back in the saddle...

Flattened musk turtle, Sternotherus depressus

It's been a year and 4 days since I last blogged. Facebook has taken the place of blogging to some degree, but I'm going to try to revive this old blog. Julia Zickefoose, whose blog is a favorite of mine, recently lamented in this interview "the decline of blogging in favor of the more immediate (and infinitely more shallow) frisson of social networking. I’m convinced that if I didn't share every blog post on Facebook, nobody would read my blog anymore."

It's the beginning of serious field season for me. I'm trapping flattened musk turtles at a concrete bridge removal site on Brushy Creek in Bankhead National Forest to get them out of harm's way before tomorrow's scheduled demolition. It's also red-cockaded woodpecker nesting time, and I need to be about three other places at once to monitor nests. On top of that, I'm preparing final maps and assimilating publication-quality images from numerous sources for two volumes that will update Bob Mount's The Reptiles and Amphibians of Alabama. Oh, and co-editing a natural communities book.  More on all that later.

Finally, check out Dave Steen's excellent blog over at Living Alongside Wildlife.  It's been a while since I actually went there (sorry Dave!), but I just did and I like what he's done with the place.