MUSEUM EMPLOYEES CREATE A CUSTOM MOBILITY AID FOR A DISABLED TURTLE USING LEGO PIECES
Every animal, regardless of size, deserves to have the greatest possible existence. The workers at the Museum of Natural History in Halifax, Nova Scotia, came up with a novel solution when a wood turtle named Root arrived missing his right foot. To make his mobility easier, they constructed a small mobility device for him out of LEGO.
Although Root hasn't lived in the wild for almost 20 years, he arrived at the museum in September 2024. Employees of the Department of Natural Resources initially saved the turtle because they wished to improve its life despite its impairment. He worked at the Oaklawn Farm Zoo in Aylesford for the majority of his life. When the zoo closed at the end of 2023, he transferred to the Shubenacadie Wildlife Park.
However, the staff decided to locate Root a new home at the museum because he was a little too controlling with the other turtles, scaring them away and stealing their food. Since he can safely explore his surroundings in his enclosure, Root spends most of his time there these days. He also goes on walks several times a week with museum staff.
When Root got to the museum, the staff saw that the turtle was walking around and scraping his plastron, or bottom shell, on the floor. "We discovered that he was sort of clunking his shell down because one leg is basically shorter than the other," explains Heather McKinnon Ramshaw, the museum's animal care specialist. "He needed something to pull him up because the shell was a little worn, and we didn't want it to go worse."
Tessa Biesterfeld, a naturalist interpreter, had the brilliant idea to construct a wheeled platform out of LEGO pieces to raise Root a little off the ground during the museum's LEGO exhibition, thus preventing harm to his shell. To make the mobility aid fit Root's physique, Biesterfeld fastened the LEGO platform to a tiny dog harness. Biesterfeld explains, “We thought that’d be so great because we know it’s non-toxic, we know that we can replace the parts as we need, and should his shell change or grow, we can change the shape and size of that. It’s very modular.”
