7.30.2010

Mrs. Snapping Turtle

Remember when I told you about our fun visitors, one being Mr. Snapping Turtle? I stand corrected. It was Mrs. Snapping Turtle.

Unfortunately, when we were weeding our garden and planting some flowers last night, we found the eggs (these are not actual eggs found).















Shane thought they were styrofoam balls .. almost look like ping pong balls. I said, "maybe they are eggs", right as Shane was cutting one in half because he thought it was styrofoam. And he said, "yep. It's an egg." We (I) almost cried. So we buried them all back. Then, when looking online to see if they really were snapping turtle eggs, we found out they were. And found out another sad tid bit. The eggs cannot be rotated, or the embryos die. :-( We have no idea how many were in there or how many rotated, but we feel so bad. I cannot stop thinking about it.

The baby turtles have a long waddle back to the ponds too, and from this site, it says they still stand a tough journey back.

Praying that all the eggs were rotated back to normal and that all the baby turtles make it to the ponds safely.

2 comments:

*kc said...

That's a crazy discovery.

Snapping Turtles are dangerous.

Common snapping turtles are solitary animals and prefer being left alone. When approached on land, if harrassed, they will stand their ground and not hesitate to bite. They have very long necks and are very powerful. Their bite can be painful, and a large adult snapper can cause a serious damage. They should always be approached and handled with caution.

My parents used to tell me they would chase after me and break my leg. Apparently, that's not true. But I'm still scared of snapping turtles. It might be better if you didn't have a dozen of them living close by.

*Stace* said...

yeah and shane was like two feet away from it. boys . . . i'm scared of them too, but i don't want to kill them! :-(