Thank you will and I'll make sure to get in contact with TSA and the others!!!You might consider associating with a researcher at a local university that works with your native tortoise. Create some sort of center based on them. You'd need some "official" affiliation, but that is often not so complex.
If on the other hand you have wild eye ideas about big $$ breeding endangered species, there are a few that would be a good choice for one reason or another.
If you intend to work with genuinely endangered species and not nessassarily make big $$, then you might consider associating with one of the institutions already doing such, like the Behler Center, The North Texas Tortoise Sanctuary, TSA, or a local-ish zoo.
Russ Gurley co-authored a book about Bert Langerwerf, that could be a good way to meld these ideas together into one place.
Thank you!!!Nice land. The idea should be utilized like Will said into which species your wanting to help. Center ville unfortunately isn't in the range of the Texas tortoise so native would be difficult. Working with endangered species can get quite extensive. Especially depending on what you want to do. I'd suggest working on a US based level and build large pens and housing for unwanted animals. We get over 60 tortoises a year relinquished to us. Most being sulcatas. Where only on 3 acres so run out of room quite quick. Large pastures work great for sulcatas and are quite easy to set up. When you get into a multitude of different species the housing required can get very detailed. We're working with two international partners of reintroduction for endangered species of tortoises and it's quite detailed. Very doable but takes a lot of work to achieve.
Nice land. The idea should be utilized like Will said into which species your wanting to help. Center ville unfortunately isn't in the range of the Texas tortoise so native would be difficult. Working with endangered species can get quite extensive. Especially depending on what you want to do. I'd suggest working on a US based level and build large pens and housing for unwanted animals. We get over 60 tortoises a year relinquished to us. Most being sulcatas. Where only on 3 acres so run out of room quite quick. Large pastures work great for sulcatas and are quite easy to set up. When you get into a multitude of different species the housing required can get very detailed. We're working with two international partners of reintroduction for endangered species of tortoises and it's quite detailed. Very doable but takes a lot of work to achieve.
Money isn't a problem at all and I been working with box turtles and some turtles all my life but I just started 3 years ago with tortoises and I'm still learning more and more about themThe land will be the cheapest part of this entire deal and you have that covered by it being a gift. How do you intend to pay for the buildings and enclosures, before we even start talking tortoises, food, and their electrical needs? How much experience do you have with tortoises? I suggest you dream big, but work very small scale and see how it goes.
We pay that much for food haha and I eat most of it!!!I wish I could say money is no object. lol I know Kelly spent over $1,000 on electricity alone last month. Just something to think about.