Roderick encountered this snapping turtle in his driveway. I must admit that I am jealous. My driveway encounters are limited to trash from my neighbor's yard and some weeds I haven't sprayed yet. Snapping turtles are much more exciting than weeds.
I guess this scenario begs the question: what did you do next? Did you leave it be and wear work boots from then on? Did you haul it off to the nearest creek? Or, like I would have done, did you cower in a corner until it ambled off your property?
Thanks for documenting your run-in with this beast, Roderick.
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11 comments:
Snapping turtles have a very slow turning speed, so if you want to move one, just get a big stick, get behind it, and then push it around like a really big shuffleboard puck.
I'm so playing shuffleboard with a snapping turtle from now on.
Maybe I can get the retirement home folks down the street on board, too.
Shuffleboard? I honestly don't think I would risk it. Those things bite and never let go.
>Those things bite and never let
>go.
Hence the get behind it part.
When I was younger I lived in a wooded area where snappers sunning themselves on the road was a occasional problem. Either you had to shuffle them off to the side of the road or drive over them.
Roderick the Kind gently captured it and turned it loose in a more suitable environment...which it left, and then the police captured it again and again turned it loose in a more suitable environment. And that's where everyone hopes it will stay.
Snappers have very specific paths in mind when they set out; it's almost impossible to deter them. When I was a kid, there was a large snapper who lived in the swamp behind our house, and each spring would cross our yard and the road to go to the river in front of our house. Initally, my father tried lifting her off the road on a snow shovel and putting her back in the swamp so that she wouldn't get run over, but she was always back out on the road the next day. Eventually, he got the idea of carrying her (with the shovel) in the direction that she was headed. She stayed in the stream happily for about a week, then returned to the swamp. So my father became a sort of turtle taxi service, hauling her off the road and putting her in whichever body of water she was headed toward.
The other day my handyman Robert told me the story of how he captured a 4ft alligator, incapacitated her with duct tape (seriously), and gave her to his boss's wife as a snapping turtle control measure. He did this, by the way, while egregiously drunk - as he was most of the time in those days. He checked back a year later and the snappers were gone, as were many of the catfish in the pond, but the gator and the bass were still there. Win/win!
Jane--
Geez. What a weird story. Robert sounds like quite the inventive guy. I wonder if the alligator's still there.
I love teratomarty's story about the turtle taxi service. I wonder what the turtle thought about it--"home, James!"
I think the drunk thing is essential to attempt duct taping a crocodile. But more often than not it ends badly, I'm sure.
Snapping turtles aren't usually baskers, like other aquatic freshwater turtles, but they do lay their eggs on land, which is probably what this one was trying to do. I have heard about using a shovel to move one. Whatever you do, don't pick it up with your bare hands -- they can extend their necks surprisingly long.
When my husband was a child, his best friend would reach into the water to pick them up by the tail, and luckily always got the right end and never lost any fingers!
Have you ever seen baby snappers? They're really cute!
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