Oh, Snap!

Here's another new critter from this past weekend, this time on Sunday in a drainage ditch among the fields of Ruskin. My buddy saw him crossing the road and went to help so he didn't get run over. Usually turtles in the road are gophers or some other common species, but not this time. This was a small snapping turtle, somebody you do not want to mess with. Get anything within a few inches of those jaws and it's going to wind up getting chopped in two. These guys don't fool around!

The only way to get this guy out of the road was to push him quickly or kick him with your foot. Anything gentler would result in getting bit. So that's how he wound up with grass all over his face as he was firmly nudged across the road and onto the shoulder.

Here's a nice overall view where you can see how well armored this guy is. Not only is he mean, but if someone does get the better of him, they're unlikely to be able to make much of a meal out of him.

Another butt shot (what that, three today?), showing the long tail and the serrated edge of the upper carapace. This guy means business. We eventually got him down into the ditch beside the road, and he immediately dug himself into the mud and disappeared. And there was only a couple of inches of water in the ditch!

Gopher

Here's another critter I spotted at Oscar Scherer State Park today. This gopher tortoise dug his burrow right in the middle of the parking lot. So it was marked off with orange cones to keep people from driving over it and ruining all his hard work. Surprisingly, even with all of the hubbub around, he was still hanging out, just watching the world go by.

Ever wonder how a big boxy turtle like this dig a burrow? It's with claws like this on all four corners. These burrows can be pretty deep, too. Only problem is when it rains...

Does he look like he's smirking to you?

Turtle Power

There were plenty of turtles out sunning themselves at Hillsborough River State Park on Saturday. Pretty much every log sticking up out of the water had a turtle on it, and many of them had more than one, as evidenced by these two shots. I guess humans aren't the only animals to enjoy a little time in the sun once in a while.

Mmmm, Soft!

Here's a fellow I don't think you've ever seen here at the blog before. This is a soft-shelled turtle. They're pretty common around here, showing up in just about any pond that's big enough to stay wet for a period of time. I shot this fellow when someone else found him wandering across a parking lot in the opposite direction of the nearest water. His hole must have dried up and he was looking for a new place to reside. So this guy was steering him towards the nearest pond, I saw what was going on and naturally I grabbed my camera and ran alongside to get a picture. About 5 seconds after this picture, the turtle got a sniff of the nearby water and started moving much faster than you might think a turtle could in that direction. Fifteen seconds after I took this picture, he was gone. We saw him a short time later, swimming back and forth in the pond, with his neck fully extended (probably a foot long!), enjoying the luxuries of his new domicile. Oh, and did I mention he bites? He bites hard. That's why you see him on the ground and not getting carried towards the new pond.

Home Sweet Hole

People say that a turtle's home is his shell, but that's not entirely true. And technically, this isn't a turtle, but a tortoise. A gopher tortoise to be exact, and he lives in a hole in the ground. I stumbled (almost literally) across this guy on Sunday while at an Earth Day celebration. I thought he was a stuffed display at first, but then he slid a few inches into his hole as I got closer, so I knew he was the real thing. These guys used to live all over the place here in Florida, but habitat loss has decimated their population, and they are now protected. We used to play with them as kids, but I suspect that's against the law now.

September Goes To The Turtles

Is this the right page for this week? I hope so. I don't like it when I can't seem to post pictures in the correct order for the correct week. If this is the picture for this week, then it shows a bunch of baby turtles in a tank at a street fair over in New Smyrna Beach. They were for sale, along with any number of other crawly critters, but I thought these guys made the best photo. Just to give you a sense of scale, these terrapins are each about an inch long.

On The Rocks

Here's another denizen of the Hillsborough River from this weekend. This turtle was sunning himself on a rock far, far away from any alligators on the prowl.

Speaking Of Turtles...-Classic Ernie

Since I brought you the other turtle story below, I figured I'd bring you this guy too. He was trying to wander in to our shop one day at work, so I carried him back to his pond. But not before taking his picture, of course.

Turtle Adventure!-Classic Ernie

Just yesterday, I brought you an adventure with big cats, and today I bring you an adventure with big turtles. What more could you want out of a blog? These first two pictures are actually from the same day I saw the cats. I think it was the day before Halloween, 2004. I went to the beach at Ft. DeSoto to try and catch the sunset, but it was overcast. I was wandering around trying to find something to shoot when some guy told me a big turtle had been caught up at the Gulf pier. I wandered that way, thinking the turtle would be long gone by the time I arrived, but I was wrong. There on the sand at the base of the pier was a giant female loggerhead turtle. She had swallowed the hook and bait from a fisherman's line, and it was lodged deep in her throat. The proper authorities had been called, and all anyone could do was wait. About a dozen of us stood around, taking turns pushing the poor girl back up on the sand when she would try to crawl away, and splashing water on her so she wouldn't dry out. I must have taken 200 pictures. You can see how big she was in the picture below. After about two hours, a truck from the Clearwater Marine Aquarium came along, and they loaded her up and took her in for treatment. The next weekend, I drove up there and asked about her. They had gotten the hook out, and she was in a tank wth another turtle where she was doing just fine. You can see her being hand fed at the aquarium in the bottom picture. Quite the adventure!

Turtle, Turtle Burning Bright

Here's a little treat for all you terrapin fans out there. This little box turtle crossed my path this afternoon, and I was obliged to take his picture. All turtles carry their house along with them, but only the box turtle can shut the doors to that house. You can see in the picture below how he is able to close up tight against any predators, or pesky photographers.

And just to show you what he looks like up close, here's a close up picture of this little guys shell.