Meet Root, the turtle with a mobility aid made of Lego

CBC

27-04-2025

He doesn't live in a sewer, his name isn't Donatello and he doesn't ride a skateboard. But little Root the turtle does get around on his own set of wheels.
The wood turtle came to live at the Museum of Natural History in Halifax last September.
Unlike most turtles, Root is missing his right front foot.
Heather McKinnon Ramshaw, the museum's animal care specialist, says she doesn't know how he lost the foot, but he's been that way for a long time. She says he was originally collected from the wild by Natural Resources Department personnel and brought into captivity 20 years ago — possibly because of his missing foot.
Root spends most of his time in his enclosure, which is filled with wood chips and has a container of water that he can swim around in.
But three times a week, staff at the museum take him out on a little stroll.
Early on, they noticed that as Root was tootling around, he was scraping his plastron, or bottom shell, on the floor.
"Because one leg is essentially shorter than the other one, we found that he was kind of clunking his shell down," McKinnon says. "There was some wear on the shell and we didn't want it to get worse, so he needed something to lift him up."
Leg up on other wood turtles
Enter Tessa Biesterfeld, a naturalist interpreter at the museum.
The museum had a Lego exhibit in December, and Biesterfeld had the idea to create a platform with wheels out of Lego pieces to lift Root up higher so his shell wouldn't get damaged.
The first incarnation used medical adhesive tape and a bandage to attach some wheels, but staff didn't want to have to stick something to his shell every time he went out for his constitutional. So Biesterfeld came up with the idea of using a removable dog harness along with the Lego platform and wheels.
"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," says Biesterfeld.
The first day, Root had an unexpectedly speedy slide down a ramp, but quickly became accustomed to using the contraption.
"Now when I snap his harness on, it's like when he hears that snap, he's ready to go," says Biesterfeld.
With the help of his wheels, Root enjoys exploring different areas of the museum, and may even have a leg up on other members of his species.
"We didn't want to make a skateboard or make anything that would just have him zooming too unnaturally fast, but he's clearly going a little faster than the average wood turtle but he seems happy to do so. He's getting lots of great exercise," Biesterfeld says.
Threatened species
Root has spent most of his 20 years in captivity at the Oaklawn Farm Zoo in Aylesford, N.S., and, after the zoo closed at the end of 2023, at the Shubenacadie Wildlife Park.
But staff at the wildlife park decided he needed a new home because he was being a little too assertive with the other turtles, standing in the food dish and intimidating others, preventing them from eating. So he ended up at the museum.
McKinnon describes Root's personality as "very bold, brave, I don't want to say overbearing," but also a bit timid around people.
Root and Gus, the museum's famous, beloved centenarian gopher tortoise, have not met, partly because they may not get along, but also because turtles can pass diseases to each other.
But with Root's fancy wheels, it's possible the museum could have another shell-ebrity on its hands.
Wood turtles are a species at risk in Nova Scotia, so having one is special because the museum would never collect one from the wild, McKinnon says.
Wood turtles can live for 50 to 80 years.
"We may have him for a while, so we want to make sure he's comfortable," McKinnon says.