Loggerhead Turtle Gets Prosthetic Flippers

The loggerhead turtle, one of the most endangered turtles, is known to be a remarkable traveler. It often faces threat from fishing nets, ship propellers, warming ocean current and sharks. Sharks often feast on them.

One such turtle who was victim of a shark attack, Yu, is a 200-pound female who lost her front limbs in the attack of 2008. She was discovered by fishermen who accidentally pulled her up in their fishing nets in the Kii Channel on the Pacific coast. On noticing nearly one-third of the right limb and half of the left limb missing, the fishermen sent it to the Suma Aqualife Park in Kobe, Japan, reports AFP.

The aquarium has made efforts of developing artificial limbs for the animal since 2008. The earlier designed artificial flippers which were squeezed over Yu's stumps had caused a lot of pain to the turtle.

Currently, the 25-year-old female loggerhead turtle is fitted with prosthetic front flippers that will help her swim freely. She has become a major tourist attraction, drawing a huge crowd at the aquarium.

The aquarium's curator, Naoki Kamezaki was quoted in AFP stating, "Yu's new limbs are more comfortable than older versions as they are connected to a vest that fits over her head. We have worked hard to design the vest in a way that prevents the turtle from taking it off unwittingly."

The turtle, with an 82 centimeter long shell, is trying her 27^th pair of artificial flippers. With the new flippers she can flutter her limbs easily, as the vest is soft.

According to Kamezaki, similar attempts were made earlier to provide turtles with artificial limbs. But not much is known about them. In this case, Yu with her artificial limbs is swimming freely without any problem.