Turtle With Lego Wheelchair Zooms Into Fame

BALTIMORE, MD — Look out, world. A Baltimore turtle is coming through, with a custom wheelchair made of Legos.

The turtle was outfitted with his wheelchair this summer and will likely be using it for several months; the healing process travels at a snail's pace since the metabolism of turtles is slower than other mammals. According to Dr. Ellen Bronson of the Maryland Zoo, he will be on his Lego wheels through the spring.

There were several fractures to the bottom of his shell, she said in a statement.

"Because of the unique placement of the fractures, we faced a difficult challenge," said Bronson, who is the senior director of animal health, conservation, and research at the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore.

The challenge, she explained, was to figure out how the turtle could move around while continuing to heal.

Garrett Fraess — a fourth-year veterinary student doing clinical rotations at the zoo — was the one who brought the injured animal to the zoo's hospital after finding him in July in Druid Hill Park. The 745-acre park in north Baltimore, which contains the zoo in its footprint, is home to more than 100 box turtles that researchers have been tagging since 1996.

After bringing the little guy, who's about the size of a grapefruit, in for surgery, Fraess said zoo officials tasked him with coming up with plans for the turtle's recovery.

"They don’t make turtle-sized wheelchairs," Fraess said. "So, we drew some sketches of a customized wheelchair, and I sent them to a friend who is a Lego enthusiast."

His friend lives in Denmark, and she sent Lego pieces from her collection to help build the structure. Combined with metal bone plates, sewing clasps and surgical wire, the Maryland Zoo team fashioned a customized contraption built around the Legos.

Within weeks of undergoing surgery to stabilize his severely fractured shell, the turtle received his multicolored Lego wheelchair. The frame is made of Legos and sits on four Lego wheels, and it is attached to the upper edges of his shell with plumbers' putty, according to the zoo.

“It was important to keep the bottom of the shell off the ground so it could heal properly,” Fraess said.

While they were not sure how the turtle would take to his new wheels, zoo officials said it went off without a hitch.

"He never even hesitated," Fraess said. "He took off and has been doing great. Turtles are really good at healing as long as the shell remains stable."

The turtle will likely use his Lego wheelchair through the winter and into the spring until all of the fragments have fused together and the shell has completely healed, according to Dr. Bronson.

The life span of an Eastern box turtle is 30 to 40 years on average but some have reportedly lived to 100.

The injured turtle was tagged in 2000, so he is at least 18 years old, zoo officials said.

While he is anything but ordinary, Fraess said the injured turtle is able to act like a turtle normally would.

"...he's able to really express a lot of his normal behaviors," Fraess said in a video from the Maryland Zoo about the turtle's journey. "He can turn on a dime. He can scoot like a normal turtle."

He has "already come so far," he added.

"Eventually, we'll work toward taking off the pieces little bit by little bit," Fraess said.

But nobody is in a rush.

"It can take a long time," Fraess said, "but he's a pretty easy keeper, so it's fun to have him around in the hospital."

In the meantime, the turtle has been making his way into headlines, from Newsweek to People.

Watch the extraordinary turtle scoot around in this video from the Maryland Zoo:

Photo and video courtesy of the Maryland Zoo.