Other Turtle Discussion :: "Wild" Turtle Stories

[lotsofpets]

When I was growing up in Ohio, there was a small pond across the road from our house. Sometimes my mom and I would walk over there VERY quietly and occasionally see a turtle basking on a log in the middle of the pond. Most of the time you would hear "large splashes" as you neared the pond. I think most of the turtles were either mud, common snappers, or painted turtles who lived in and around the area. My mom made the mistake one time of moving a large stick near the middle of the pond - a large snapper jumped straight out of the pond and bit the stick in half! We were both scared! Those snappers can be very nasty!

Our family used to keep a garden next to the pond (the soil was very fertile) where we would see evidence of nests in the garden. In the spring we sometimes saw hatchling turtles making their way from the garden to the pond. They were so cute! My dad would get rather upset with the turtles because they dug up the garden and ate and destoyed the vegetable plants that we planted sometimes!

One year there was a nasty drought and the pond dried up. My oldest brother had found a dinner-plate sized snapper who had unfortunately managed to wedge his shell under a fence. He figured that the turtle was trying to get to another body of water. My brother put on thick leather gloves (remember it was a wild and very scared turtle) and went to work prying the turtle out from under the fence. After about fifteen minutes, he managed to get it free. He then put it in a secure bicycle basket and drove it nearly a mile to a small creek where he thought it would be safe.

Several years later I come across a VERY LARGE snapper attempting to cross the road. (This snapper was about the size of a VW bug and took up both lanes of the road! ) I am not sure where it was trying to go at the time, but it was very strange to see a turtle that size in the middle of the road.

I hope other people will comment on my stories and also share some of their own!

[Ozzyy]

like mabey 5 feet wide?!!! wow. back when i lived in virginia there was a family of turtles that migrated over land to get to the pond on the otherside of the yar

[SpotsMama]

Once years ago in east Texas I came across a big snapper (not VW size - more like a bread box) at the side of the road. The turtle was about to cross the road - not a good idea - so I stopped to try to push him to safety. I got a big stick and started pushing. Well, that turtle didn't appreciate my efforts one bit! He snapped and snapped at that stick - every time taking off a piece. The snaps sounded like traps springing shut. After about 15 minutes I managed to get that mean snapper turned around facing the other way but could not - could not - get him off the side of the road. I left, hoping that the snapper would have the good sense to keep going in the direction I left him. Since then I've had huge respect for snappers - your brother is one brave fellow!

[scripta_elegans]

I've rescued a few turtles from roads in my life. I have moved a boxie, and a painted, and an alligator snapper and a common snapper.
The common snapper was in Arkansas. I was with my best friend on a kayak trip down the buffalo river about 6 years ago. We were driving between camp sites on the river, and I saw a huge snapper in the road. This sucker's head was about the size of my fist. I stopped the car and I got out. The turtle looked really tired, but unhurt. my friend thought i was crazy as I picked the turtle up, but he seemed very docile for a snapping turtle. He was amazingly heavy, his back legs were sort of scrabbling against my stomach, but he didn't try to bite me at all. I put him in the pond near the camp we were going to. One of the rangers for the national park happened to see me grab the turtle from the road, and climb in the car with it, and she folowed me to see where I was going with the turtle. She seemed very relieved that I had moved him to a pond. I think she might have thought we were going to a) take him home, or b) eat him. She also said that she had never seen a person intentionally rescue a snapping turtle, and she thought it was very nice of us. (She waived or fee for camping too.)
The alligator snapper was in Florida, and he was quite bitey. I tried to chase him out of the road, and he just glared at me, and hissed. So I grabbed him from behind, and carried him across the road. I put him down, and he bit me. It drew blood, but it didn't need stitches. I was 11 at the time, and I wasn't terribly put out by the turtle I had saved biting me. That was near Naples in 1988.
The boxie was last year, and it was getting harrased by a dog along side the road, so really it was more of a relocation for the turtle, and a talk with the dog's owner about not pestering local wildlife.
The painted was this summer. He was in the road near a big lake, I think his back water dried up, and we moved him to another back water that looked less likely to shrivel. He was very cute. He tucked in, and didn't come out until I set him on a log, and then not for 5 minutes. Then he dashed into the water, and that was just what I wanted to see.
I love hearing rescue stories! I grew up with a grandfather who taught me all about the natural world, and taught me respect for all the living things in it. He was a great wildlife advocate, and I know he would love to read more of these stories too.

[lotsofpets]

Well, I would not have been able to "rescue" that huge snapper in that last story. Now that I think about it, the snapper was probably a female looking for a nice nesting site for her eggs. It's shell was about 4-5 ft in diameter and had a rough looking shell with a 2 to 3 ft long spiky tail. This turtle probably weighed several hundred pounds - I could not have lifted it even if I had wanted to!

I think that if people observed more turtles in the wild, they would have a better understanding of how they should take care of them in captivity.

[scripta_elegans]

It sounds like the VW bug snapper would be a danger to cars instead of vice versa! She might eat them instead of the cars getting her!
I agree, I think that observation of wild turtles absolutlely gives a keeper a better understanding of their animals. I have had a hard time expressing to my husband some of the turtles natural behaviors. He gets worried, for example, that they don't trust him enough to remain basking all the time.

[SpotsMama]

Wow - I just assumed lotsofpets was using poetic license in describing the size of that big snapper as taking up two lanes of a road! I had no idea they got that big!

[marisa]

I own a 1973 VW bug. I don't believe they get that big (they can get big, but not that big).

[scripta_elegans]

Well okay, maybe it's a slight exageration..... But common snappers can get up to 75 pounds, and Alligator snappers can get up to a whopping 150 pounds. A full grown Alligator snapping turtle could easily amputate fingers from a full grown human. They look quite fearsome too!

[lotsofpets]

I didn't know I was going to spark a debate on how big common snappers get! All I know is that it was huge. It's not like you see something walking around like that everyday! It was truly a magnificent creature in all respects.

If anyone on here has been to the Newport Aquarium (across the river from Cincinatti) they may have an idea about what I am talking about - only the turtle I saw was quite a bit bigger than the one they have on display!

[z-chic]

I moved a common snapper from our driveway to the pond last summer. he was about 18 inches from tip to tail. I "snapped" a few pictures of him before we carried him to the pond.

[scripta_elegans]

He is very cute! Do you see him often basking?

[flutterby]

When I was little, where my grandfather lived.. they found a snapper in the creek by the house. I swear that it must have been as big as a car tire so I can believe they get rather big. (If my mother pops in here she can probably remember how big it really was)

[z-chic]

we were visiting here last summer when we found that snapper...my mom said a few days later she saw him treking out back (there is a swamp in the woods) Now that we live up here we have not seen one wild turtle this summer they use to be all over. The neighbor guy started shooting any he saw because he said they were eating his fish in the pond. (the man no longer lives up here) When I was about 15 I saw another neighbor jump out of a car and hit something several times with a sledge hammer...after he pulled away I went to see what it was, to my HORROR it was a huge snapper, he killed it with a sledge hammer!!! it was a horrific scene. It is shocking what peoples fears will lead them to do.

[scripta_elegans]

People can be rather disgusting toward animals at times. I remember how horror struck I was at 9 when I saw another kid kill a snake almost directly in front of me. My father has hundreds of bull snakes hibernate under the porch of his house every winter, and we loved seeing them come out in the spring, and played with them, and even kept them as "pets" for a day. I cried for hours over that one. I was prepared after that point for acts of violence toward snakes, and stopped quite a few. It is amazing how willing people are to kill basically harmless and beneficial animals. Dad never had a mouse or rat problem on his farm, as lots of his neighboors (aka snakekillers) did. He also had the biggest bull snake I have ever seen living under the porch all the time. I think it was about 6 feet long, and she was very docile and calm, and was totally unafraid of us. I believe she died of natural causes.