His name is Julius Caesar and we are obsessed with him.
Julius Caesar washed up on the beach in Donegal in January 2019 when he was only nine months old.
According to
RTÉ News he was "thought to have been caught up in the wrong current and swept along the gulf stream" and when he was found "he was suffering from hypothermia, stunned by the cold water, and weighed just a few hundred grams".
https://www.instagram.com/p/CT1thO9rC4G/
After he was rescued he was transported to Down where the Exploris Aquarium in Portaferry took care of him. After spending nearly three years in Ireland, it was now time for Julius Caesar to return to a warmer climate. Today he boarded an Aer Lingus flight in a crate, as the hold would be too cold for him.
Julius Caesar is heading for Gran Canaria, where he will be supervised before finally being released into the sea. According to
RTÉ News "loggerhead turtles are a vulnerable and endangered species, and their numbers are in decline in the wild" making it even more crucial that Julius Caesar is kept safe.
We're sorry to see Julius Caesar go, but happy he is on his way to sunnier horizons.
Header image via Instagram/rtenews
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