Spike is Turning 14!
(Mission, TX) – You're invited to Spike's birthday party, Saturday, December 10, at 10 AM, at the National Butterfly Center! A yearlong resident of the garden, Spike is a giant African Spurred Tortoise, whose birthday we celebrate at the anniversary of his adoption.
Abandoned after 10 years when his boy went to college, Spike was picked up by Animal Control and surrendered to a local sanctuary. The sanctuary owner first suggested Spike come to live at the National Butterfly Center, where he has become the official spokes-tortoise for the facility and a very large part of their youth education and wildlife conservation programs.
“We call Spike 'the world's most spectacular non-butterfly',” states Marianna Trevino Wright, executive director of the National Butterfly Center. “He's huge and very friendly, so everyone loves him. He enjoys all the attention he receives, here, and he's an excellent visual aid for teaching children all the things that butterflies have in common with reptiles, and why South Texas is home to so many of both!”
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