Other Turtle Discussion :: i had my first encounter with....

[evilsr20degg]

a gopher turtle. this thing was HUGE. ill have pics of it up later. so heres the story.

i do realestate surveying(go out find the corners of the property dig them up and shoot lasers). so we pull up to the site and i go about my business ge teh shove and the metal detector. i wander over get the first corner taken care of and walk ove to the second corner and all i see is a little eye ball staring up at me. scared the crap out of me to begin with so i call my boss over he tells me its just a opher turtle and to be careful but move him(he was directly over the corner) so i get him out of his spot and set him next to it. im thinking DAMN this thing is HUGE. we take a pic of it by my hand, then i think about it and not everyone knows how big my had is so i put a dollar bill on his shell and we take a pic of him again. heres where it gets stupid.

my boss wants him to move a little bit(we were recording at this point) so he tells me to poke him i say OK....and now the turtle literally does a back flip to try to take my hand off. i jump back like OH [----] and we start laughing.....luckily i didnt turn into turtle food. ill have the pics and the video up soon.

[JessicaTS]

A gopher tortoise is considered more of an intermediate or advanced tortoise and they get a little bigger than small. Up to 15 inches and only 9-12lbs
How big do you think this one was? How do you know he was a gopher?

[evilsr20degg]

http://pictures.forthacks.com/jeff/random%20vids/turtle.avi

please right click and save it or something....

i was told it was a gopher if it isnt...by all means help me out with what it was.

[cam722]

hahahaha.. that video is hilarious!!!! That darn thing can sure jump.. Yep you're lucky you were turtle food

[JessicaTS]

Now that is a fat face lol
Was he bellowing out his throat or something?
He does seem like a gopher, but I know their carapace are a bit lighter, I'm guessing the dirt is covering everything?
And gophers are located in Florida, so I'm pretty sure he's a gopher

Okay, I just saw the video and now I'm convinced he's NOT a gopher. Gophers cannot climb, jump or sit up

[evilsr20degg]

well what is he?

[JessicaTS]

This is a tough one because gophers are Floridas largest distributed tortoise there.
I'll need more research. Who knows, maybe gophers can jump afterall

[evilsr20degg]

ok well ill just keep callin it a gopher, when i found him the only thing out of the ground was his head. so thats what were bassing out guess on speices off of.

[JessicaTS]

It is possible, gophers burrow holes and alot of them. All of the burrows house other small animals as well which is really sweet

[maymay]

HAHAHAH that video is hilarious! But it's good you didn't get injured! That turtle jumped really high!!! It looks like a rock and the face is so funny! Reminds me of one of those Super Mario Nintendo Game characters!!

[jenaero]

If it wasn't in a hole in the ground i'd be thinkin it was a snapper...really weird. That's the only kind of turt that can turn around that quick usually.

[JessicaTS]

Now that you mention it, it does look like a Florida snapper

[evilsr20degg]

i thought snappers lower shell was kind of seperated thoug....like the front could close.....ive already found a few smaller snappers....they were brighter in color and a lot more friendly....they didnt try to eat me....

[JessicaTS]

Snappers are known to eat fingers lol
Gophers, because they cannot climb, sit up, or jump eat wiregrass and silkgrass, plants that are low lying grass.
It also explains the face, that's not a tortoises face.
A pic of the plastron would tell for sure, but guess that's too late

[sonyj]

That was so funny! But I'm glad you still have all your fingers!!