Rdmonster69

Found this little guy while trying out a new route. Right in the middle of the road. I helped him to the other side. Must have hatched this summer. There was a drainage ditch nearby so maybe he was heading there. I carried him to the other side of the road in the direction he was travelling.

On a more cycling related not my new Trek SLR 6 is an amazing ride. I should not be surprised but I am much faster on it than my other bike. I must say I am a bit surprised tho. I expected to be faster but not this much faster. I averaged about 17 MPH over 25 miles last night and it was pretty darn windy. Bike just wants to go!! I know that's not fast for some people but for a 51 year old coming off an injury it makes me feel awesome !! I think the gearing on my older bike must be off and I need to service the BB maybe. I bought a Dura-Ace crankset for it off of Ebay and it is not a compact. I can't ride in the big ring at all. Looks cool but I can only use the small ring and the rear cassette is designed for a triple. The new bike I can ride the big ring and keep the rear in the middle of the cassette.

Ghazmh

Good job!

rumrunn6

wow, that's adorable!

kahn

Looks like a baby snapping turtle. Still have your pinkies?

I moved a garter snake off the road once.

I also remember while out on a survey field trip finding a garter snake and bringing it back to the car where my secretary was sitting. She was out the other side and did not even open her door!

indyfabz

This summer? More like this week.

Assuming that's a snapper, they have high mortality rates, both pre and post-hatch. During my two-week tour in June of 2018 I watched a mother lay eggs in a ditch she had dug in soft ground by the side of a road near Westhampton, MA. Not surprisingly, there was a reservoir close by. She would squeeze out one about every minute. One female can lay 100 eggs. Once she's done, she covers the eggs with dirt. That ends her involvement as a mother. The hatchlings must survive on their own.

A couple of days later I was riding the Harlem Valley Trail in NY. Along a part of the trail near a large pond there were broken egg shells. I figured they must have hatched, but a local told me raccoons often find the nests, dig up the eggs and eat the embryos.

You likely saved a life.

Barry2 

What if he’d turned around to see how far he’d come, and you ruined it!

tomato coupe

I was wondering where he went. He dashed out the door the other day and I lost him after a couple of miles. Where are you located?

indyfabz

See my post above.

Here is one I saw the morning I saw the raided nest. I left him alone.

Rdmonster69

I would def leave him alone unless he was in the road !! If so then a blanket and the back of his shell just above the legs. That guy is probably 60+ years old !! Baby snappers do have a very high mortality rate. Hopefully my little guy makes it. He didn't snap my pinky off but he was not super thrilled about being helped out. We used to catch em and eat em when I was a kid.

Metieval

Very cool!

Random fact did you know a beheaded snapper can still snap hours after being beheaded?

indyfabz

Earlier this summer there was a huge one in the middle of the road during a day ride in S. Jersey. A motorist stopped along with me. I picked it up from behind. The thing went nuts. It was so damn strong I let it go. Then a county maintenance worker pulled his bucket loader over. He got a large piece of tree branch and started pushing the thing out of the road. My God! What a fight. It was thrashing around like a damn alligator. The motorist was worried that they guy might hurt it. He said "You can't hurt these things." He finally got it into the grass after a couple of minutes.

I like helping animals, but I also like my fingers. I will never try to pick up a grown snapper again.

livedarklions

Nasty critters! They remind me of me.

They're all over the Nashua River Trail, I love seeing them. I do wonder if they eat any of the goslings in the spring.

cyccommute 

“She”. Males seldom leave water. Females leave water to lay eggs.

cyccommute 

I’ve wrangled several snappers…including babies like the one Rdmonster69 handled. Yes, they are incredibly strong and will thrash about. They also pee prodigious amounts in defense. A thrashing 30+lb turtle that you have to hold away from your body can be a handful. Just don’t pick them very far off the ground and move them quickly.

They also stink. Even the babies smell like the bottom of a pond.

Iride01 

Well now you are just making me feel extra bad.

A few weeks ago I passed a box turtle crossing the road. At the time I was thinking I should go back and get it safely across the road before a car came along.

However I didn't. It wasn't a busy road so there is hope. And no evidence of a crime on later rides of that route.

indyfabz

This was an institution in Philly for a long time. I had the soup both at the restaurant and from a can at home.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bookbinder_soup

Rdmonster69

A grown snapper will do a number on you for sure.

Yes decapitated snappers heads can bite and their hearts beat for hours !!

The safest way to move a snapper is with a shovel or by dropping a towel/blanket over their heads and picking them up just above the rear legs. They can't scratch or bite you from there but they are very powerful and quite fast. It waaaay wasier said than done. Unfortunately pushing them along a road can scrape their legs and undersides pretty badly (think road rash on a turtle) and they can then suffer from infection and even die. Most people don't know that.

The threat of snappers to goslings and baby ducks is there but way over stated. Most turtles lay on the bottom. Snappers tho mean and nasty on land attempt to flee when in the water. Grabbing them by the tail can injure there tail and vertebrae. They can live to be over 100 years old.

Obviously I like turtles. Had a snapper as a pet when I was a boy. When he got big enough to be scary he was released. Never really warmed up to people !!

indyfabz

When I was a camp counselor in training one summer we had a relatively small snapper in a tank in the nature center. Everyone was told not to mess with it. Once of my fellow trainees was not the brightest bulb in the chandelier. He stuck his hand in the tank and got a nasty bite on his finger. He may have needed stiches. It was so long ago I cannot remember. Stupid is as stupid does. Needless to say, he did not get offered a job at the end of the training period.

Rdmonster69

I have alot of respect for an animal that has been around for 90 million years. I have always been a hunter which means I am first and foremost an environmentalist. Things like snapping turtles are amazing animals and are the ultimate survivalists. If we don't screw this planet up even worse we should have them around for another 90 million years.

delbiker1 

When I was young, my father and his friends would occasionally go to specific areas to capture snapping turtles for turtle and blood soup. They caught some very large snappers. When they would dress them out and clean them, the kids would take the hearts and put them in a glass of water, and it would keep beating for hours. Also, as mentioned above, a couple hours later, you could poke the severed head with a stick and the mouth would snap at the stick. As children, we got quite a kick out of that. I did not like the soup. Truly amazing, pre-historic creatures of survival.

Ryno317

I remember once when I was a kid in the mid 80's. My mom and I came across a snapper in the road. She pulled a snow brush from the trunk, had it snap on to that and she lifted it to the side of the road. She didn't get her brush back until the next day when she went back to look for it. It was nearly crushed in half.

kahn

I don't believe Turtle is kosher. I use to have turtle soup - it was quite good as I recall.

kahn

I remember being at summer camp. Someone found a rather large (more than 12-15 inches across) snapper. Put it in with the pond turtles. Many a decapitated pond turtle was the result!

Milton Keynes

Yes, I know this firsthand. When I was a kid my dad used to butcher snapping turtles, and I've eaten more turtle legs than most people. The first thing he'd do (for obvious reasons) is cut off the head. After we were done cleaning the turtle, we'd pick the head up and make it bite things, like the edge of the picnic table where it would hang for a long time.

I don't recommend eating snapping turtle. Mom always had to cook it a special way in a cast iron pan, and even then I still never really acquired a taste for it. It definitely doesn't taste like chicken.

Siu Blue Wind

Thank you for guiding it safely in the direction it was headed!!