LAP: Behind the scenes with Skip

The marine mammal trainers work very closely with the seals and sea lions at the Aquarium. But you may not know that they work with other marine animals around the Aquarium, too—like lobsters, lumpfish, snakes and even Myrtle the turtle. 

This is a post from trainer Meg Stone, who has been working with a different kind of turtle.

Skip, a Blandings turtle, not only does live animal presentations for the public, but gets training sessions behind the scenes. Teaching Skip helps this shy guy get comfortable meeting new people during these presentation, keeps him active in his environment and allows Skip to participate in his own health care.

Skip is a handsome fellow. Here he is in his container during a live animal presentation!

Throughout the day, like all the animals in the Aquarium, we offer him some enrichment, or play. Here is Skip playing around with some peas.



Come by the Aquarium and you might Skip during a live animal presentations in the Blue Planet Action Center. Or you might see another fascinating animal from our blue planet—like axolotls, lobsters or Eastern box turtles. There's just so much the learn!