How LEGO is Helping This Turtle Cruise Down the Road to Recovery

Turtles are tough animals, but an injured shell is usually a death sentence. So when a Maryland Zoo employee found a wild Eastern Box Turtle with a cracked shell, he feared the worst. Luckily some creative thinking and a little LEGO ingenuity saved the day.

While walking through Druid Hill Park in Maryland, a Maryland Zoo employee came upon an injured Eastern Box turtle. Although things usually wouldn’t be looking good for an animal with such a critical injury, this employee knew just what to do. The turtle was taken to the Maryland Zoo’s animal hospital. The problem was that the fractures were on the bottom of his shell.

The good news was that the zoo’s veterinarian was able to perform surgery to stabilize the shell with metal plates. The bad news was that the turtle needed to be kept off the ground in order for his shell to heal properly.

Several ideas for a turtle wheelchair were tossed around, but eventually the zoo landed on Lego. After all, they’re lightweight, customizable, easy to assemble, and relatively inexpensive. The ability to incorporate wheels was key. Traditional hardware would have been expensive, heavy, and less adaptable to the unique situation.

After the initial spark a few sketches were made and handed over to a Lego enthusiast friend of one of the veterinary externs. What they came up with was a small Lego frame that surrounded the shell and had four little wheels on the bottom for mobility. They reported that the turtle took to it like he didn’t know the difference.

And now things are looking up for this special turtle. It will probably take a long time for him to full recover —  turtles don’t do anything fast — and so he will remain as a guest of the zoo until likely the spring of 2019, when, if he has fully recovered, he will be released back into the wild.