Conservation in Action: Tortoises Galore

When Tom Arbour was 6 years old, his grandfather took him to the F.A. Seiberling Nature Realm, where he was mesmerized by wildlife in a pond.

“You could just stand and watch painted turtles all day,” he says. “I told my parents when I was in first grade that I wanted a turtle.”

His parents happened to see a turtle crossing a road and brought it home. That began Arbour’s lifelong journey with exotic pets.

During high school, he had a large collection of turtles, lizards, fish and one snake. For 20 years, he did wildlife conservation work for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. Around 2016 or 2017, his kids were watching YouTube videos of pet reptile collections, and his desire for a large reptile collection was reignited.

“I told myself, I can’t watch these videos,” recalls Arbour, who had a few tortoises at the time. “If I do, I’m gonna go right back to where I was as a teenager, and now I have resources to live out my dreams as a kid — that’s how it started.”

Now, Arbour has 37 tortoises, including Speke’s hinge-backs, Western hinge-backs and Home’s hinge-backs, filling an entire room in his Tallmadge home. He breeds Home’s and Western hinge-backs. Named after “I Love Lucy” characters, a few came from a conservation organization and were previously living in the wild in Africa. Home’s hinge-backs are now a critically endangered species, and Arbour strives to conserve them.

“The tortoise work is all about trying to keep these two species in the United States,” says Arbour of Western and Home’s hinge-backs. “I take in animals … give them good homes and then also try to breed them, so that we can continue having these creatures as pets.”

He’s designed tub enclosures to resemble the wild, ensuring there is plenty of UVB light, humidity and water, as well as African plants. He feeds them 20 to 30 types of plants and has introduced arthropods called springtails to manage the soil by consuming animal and food waste.

A walk-in closet is filled with tortoise babies. Over the years, he’s bred over 100 babies and keeps some, gives some away or sells some. He feeds them insects using tongs to forge a connection.

“They live so long. If you have an animal for 20 or 30 years, you have memories,” says Arbour, adding that he has had Brownie for 26 years — the longest of any tortoise he owns. “Some tortoises are really friendly, and you can generate a real bond.”

Tortoises are far from Arbour’s only pets. He has several tanks throughout his home, housing animals such as Seymour, a painted turtle, two fire-bellied toads and a rare, prized satanic leaf-tailed gecko. Plus, he has over 300 fish, including three basement tanks containing African fish, like Congo tetras.

“I built that aquarium to just be able to chill and be in the moment and watch the fish,” he says.

His kids have their own pets too. Paige, 9, has Cheeto, a leopard gecko, whom she likes to hold. Brody, 15, has Blitz, a gargoyle gecko, and Miracle, a bearded dragon, who enjoys walking on a leash. Weston, 17, has Zelda, a bearded dragon, who often sits on his shoulder. Other pets include a pug, Max, and Finn, a Bernedoodle service dog.

Arbour has come full circle — and has his own reptile YouTube channel, TwoTurtleTom, sharing best care practices with his 6,500-plus subscribers and other viewers.

“I just really like turtles,” he says. “Some of us, we have this affinity for animals and reptiles, and it’s just encoded in our DNA. It makes us happy.”

youtube.com/@twoturtletom