South Dakota turtles have never had it so good. Believe it or not, May 23 has been designated as World Turtle Day! That's according to free lance writer Tom Emery of Carlinville, Ill.

But it's probably slow for this exciting announcement to sink in through their thick skins. That might not happen until the next day May 24 at the earliest. And if they do want to risk danger and stick their heads out just a wee bit, somebody might get the wrong idea. People can and do have them for pets and they also can even appear on a restaurant menu (neither being great ideas.) So in this report Emery quotes Eileen Dowd Stukel, the Wildlife Diversity Coordinator for South Dakota Game, Fish, and Parks. She says that the long-range future is indeed still quite bright for the state's turtle population "as long as as we maintain a diversity of wetland types for aquatic turtles and assure that turtles are not over-collected for the pet trade or sale to restaurants."

Something that I did not know was that there are actually seven turtles species in South Dakota and the southeastern part of the state has some of the higher populations (similar to people?) Well, that might be  a few more than I could personally identify, including the most common South Dakota turtle -- the northern painted turtle. Some of these species, though, are apparently in shorter supply than others and that might reflect less than desirable water quality in some areas. And there are also natural predators out there as well in addition to humans.

So Stukel says that citizens should report sightings of turtles that are considered rare to the appropriate state or federal agencies and support laws and practices that will help maintain diverse aquatic and terrestrial habitats that turtles appreciate. So there will be a World Turtle Day in 2021, as well.