Rockalina the turtle meets member of her own species for the 1st time in 48 years

Rockalina the turtle has had a transformative year.

When wildlife rescuers first laid eyes on her back in February, they weren’t sure she’d last the night. 

After nearly 50 years living on a kitchen floor in New Jersey, the eastern box turtle had developed ingrown nails, several deformities and dry, sloughing skin. She was too weak to even keep her eyes open.

But 11 months later, she’s thriving at a wildlife sanctuary, soaking up the sun and feasting on worms and berries. 

And now, for the first time since she was plucked from the wild in 1977, she has a companion of her own species — a wee baby turtle named Pebble.

“They’re doing good,” Chris Leone, Rockalina’s caretaker, told As It Happens host Nil Kӧksal. “They’re a lot of fun to watch.”

‘It looked like a mummy’

Leone is the founder of Garden State Tortoise, a New Jersey reptile breeding and rescue facility. He first met Rockalina nearly a year ago, when a woman reached out for help.

Her husband’s aunt and uncle had recently died, she said, and she was unsure what to do about the turtle who lived in their home. 

The creature, she said, had the run of the house, but resided primarily in the kitchen, where she believes it ate a diet of mostly cat food. 

She told Leone the couple’s son had found the turtle outside in 1977 when he was a boy and took her home. He had disabilities that prevented him from caring for his new pet, so the responsibility fell to his parents.

“Now, there was really nobody to take care of the turtle,” Leone said.

But eastern box turtles, he says, aren’t meant to live in a house. They are natural forest dwellers, who like tree cover, lots of humidity and ponds to soak in. 

“A linoleum kitchen floor couldn’t be any further from what this animal needs,” Leone said. “The animal looked like it was deceased. It looked like a mummy.”

The hard kitchen floors, he said, caused the bones in Rockalina’s fingers to grow “upwards and backwards,” he said. 

“That caused the nails to grow in the complete opposite direction and curl over completely to the point where they were actually starting to grow back into her feet,” he said. 

Her beak was misshapen, her skin was pale and flaking off, and cat hair had become entangled around one of her legs, cutting off circulation. 

“We thought the foot was going to have to be removed,” Leone said. “Once we got her into good shape, we learned that although the leg will always be disfigured, it doesn’t have to be amputated and she can actually use it to pivot on.”

Road to recovery 

Over the last 11 months, Garden State Tortoise has documented Rockalina’s recovery on YouTube, where she’s gained a lot of fans.

Because she’s doing so well, staff decided it was time to give her a friend. Eastern box turtles, Leone says, live in colonies and it’s important they socialize with their own kind.

Enter Pebble, a brand new turtle hatched at the facility, just for Rockalina. The duo, Leone says, seem to be hitting it off.

In their supervised interactions so far, they seem curious about each other — sniffing each other and craning their necks to get a good stare.

“Curiosity is a good trigger to know that they’re feeling good,” Leone said.

Leone urges people not to remove turtles from their natural habitats. But he says it’s too late for Rockalina to go back to the forest where she’d be unable to defend herself from predators.

So the staff are doing their best to make her as happy as she can be for her remaining days, of which there could be many. 

“She could go another 50 years, believe it or not.”