Visitors to the Forest Park Museum in Perry have been treated for more than a month to an informative exhibit about turtles.

Curator Pete Malmberg says the exhibit came to the museum from the Mississippi River Museum in Dubuque. The exhibit includes hands-on displays, information about turtles around the world, gruesome facts, and even live turtles. Malmberg decided to bring the exhibit in to help educate the public about the present struggles of turtles in the wild.

“Turtles around here are not doing as well as they used to, even the snapping turtles. And one of the victories at the state house this year was we’re going to probably be able to restrict some of the trapping on them to let them get bigger sizes and recover some of their population.”

The exhibit and the museum are free. It is open weekdays from 8 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. Starting next week it will also be open from 1-4:30 p.m. on weekends and holidays.