Sea Turtles

The ABQ BioPark Aquarium has two adult sea turtles—outgoing Jimmy, a male hawksbill sea turtle, and shyer Mimi, a female loggerhead turtle. Both are rescues.

Jimmy likes to hang out with the divers and is very social—sometimes he even lands on their swim fins.

Mimi is a bit more timid. Sometimes she’ll interact with divers, but occasionally she likes to be left alone. She enjoys a good neck scratch from time to time, however, and even has a ticklish spot on her neck—if you hit her tickle zone she withdraws her head back into her shell momentarily.

To keep the turtles mentally agile, the divers engage the turtles in training sessions.

Both Mimi and Jimmy respond to target training. BioPark staff use positive reinforcement to teach the turtles, rewarding desired behaviors and ignoring undesired behaviors.

In order to get their favorite stuffed squid treats, the turtles touch a target—Jimmy touches a red triangle and Mimi touches a blue circle. Jimmy also responds to a bell—when he hears it ring, this is his cue to swim to staff and start his daily target training.

By utilizing Jimmy’s target training skills, aquarists can easily coax him to the deck area above the ocean tank to eat. This skill is advantageous on days when divers are unable to enter the tank to hand feed animals.

In addition to squid, the sea turtles are fed a variety of other foods such as smelt, shrimp, capelin and mackerel. Their diet is also supplemented with vitamins and minerals.