Turtle crossing
So here's what happened: This morning I came to the intersection of Sucker Brook and Oatka and Bacon Roads and saw an object in the road. A largish, lumpish object, not unlike a large dead turtle, except for the fact that it turned and snapped at a passing car. In other words, a large live turtle, in the middle of a busy rural intersection. I pulled over, put on my hazards, and went to see if I could herd it off the road. I've moved a small turtle off Oatka Road before, but this one was large - its shell easily over a foot long - and snappish. I was bare-handed, bare-legged, and not foolish. I tried, with gestures and exhortations, to urge it off the road. Instead of running away from me, it treated me as it had the cars; it turned to face me, and snapped irritably.
A few cars passed our standoff. One soon stopped and asked me what I was doing. I said I was trying to save the turtle, but I wasn't going to try to pick it up. The man got out of his car, said "I'm from Florida - that's a loggerhead. You don't want to touch it, they'll take your thumb off" - he began to urge the turtle with his foot -
"but this is a fake leg." At first, I thought he was referring to some part of the turtle, as its long, thick, tough neck shot its head out to attack his foot, and its thick stumpy tail energetically whipped around, but then I realized the man meant his own leg was prosthetic. He pushed, prodded, shoved, overturned, slid, and elsewise got the turtle off the road - I suggested the lake side, as I hoped the creature would find its way to the larger body of water - into the grass. Cars passed. He got back into his car, then asked me if the turtle was back in the road. No, I said. Off he went. I answered the question of a passing driver, and off I went.
At the bookstore, one customer said she worked with animal rescue, but they didn't do turtles. She claims that some drivers deliberately aim to kill them, as snapping turtles are known to interfere with fishing.
Another customer (hi, Bob!) suggested calling the DEC. I did, but once they head that the animal was off the road - "Did you take it in the direction it was going?" "I don't know which direction it was heading - it was turning to menace the passing cars" - they said there was nothing for them to do. Bob told me that turtles like to lay their eggs in the soft dirt of roadside ditches, where the eggs are often taken by foxes and such. A little more research suggests to me that the Florida man was mistaken - our irritable, muddy-looking friend was most likely a snapping turtle, one of the two turtles most common to New York State. Snap, it did.
It wasn't dead in the road when I drove home tonight, so I count the mission a success. If you ever need to move a large, grumpy turtle off the road, I can wish you no better luck than to have a one-legged man show up, willing to do the job.
A few cars passed our standoff. One soon stopped and asked me what I was doing. I said I was trying to save the turtle, but I wasn't going to try to pick it up. The man got out of his car, said "I'm from Florida - that's a loggerhead. You don't want to touch it, they'll take your thumb off" - he began to urge the turtle with his foot -
"but this is a fake leg." At first, I thought he was referring to some part of the turtle, as its long, thick, tough neck shot its head out to attack his foot, and its thick stumpy tail energetically whipped around, but then I realized the man meant his own leg was prosthetic. He pushed, prodded, shoved, overturned, slid, and elsewise got the turtle off the road - I suggested the lake side, as I hoped the creature would find its way to the larger body of water - into the grass. Cars passed. He got back into his car, then asked me if the turtle was back in the road. No, I said. Off he went. I answered the question of a passing driver, and off I went.
At the bookstore, one customer said she worked with animal rescue, but they didn't do turtles. She claims that some drivers deliberately aim to kill them, as snapping turtles are known to interfere with fishing.
Another customer (hi, Bob!) suggested calling the DEC. I did, but once they head that the animal was off the road - "Did you take it in the direction it was going?" "I don't know which direction it was heading - it was turning to menace the passing cars" - they said there was nothing for them to do. Bob told me that turtles like to lay their eggs in the soft dirt of roadside ditches, where the eggs are often taken by foxes and such. A little more research suggests to me that the Florida man was mistaken - our irritable, muddy-looking friend was most likely a snapping turtle, one of the two turtles most common to New York State. Snap, it did.
It wasn't dead in the road when I drove home tonight, so I count the mission a success. If you ever need to move a large, grumpy turtle off the road, I can wish you no better luck than to have a one-legged man show up, willing to do the job.