I was walking the dog (again) and I saw this guy in the road. I wasn't sure if it was a snapping turtle or not, since they're the ones that I see the most around here, but after a quick image search, I'm pretty sure that it is a small, common snapping turtle. I tried to move this guy across the road, but I couldn't find any sticks big enough (which is crazy, because there are trees EVERYWHERE) and I didn't want to risk getting bit. Also, the dog was really curious about it, so that made it difficult to control the dog and the turtle at the same time.
After I walked away from it, a car sped by and went over a bump. But there is no bump there. I hope it wasn't the turtle :(
Turtles are so cool. It sucks that they're so vulnerable to pollution (including light pollution) and are ill-equipped to deal with roads and cars. If you ever have the chance to see young turtles feeding on fish, I highly recommend you do it. Be warned though, that they are stinky, stinky pets that poop a lot. I used to have 5 red-eared sliders, which sadly, I had to sell.
In Britain we call them tortoises, except the Snapping Turtle, which is always a Snapping Turtle. Turtles in British English are the ones that swim and have flippers, and tortoises are the ones that can't swim and have feet. I just thought i'd share this tidbit with you, because why not?
Sharing is what this place is all about! In general, I'm under the same impression over the division of turtles and tortoises too. What's confusing to me is that there are also "land turtles" which are pretty much like tortoises, except . . . they're not. And then there are terrapins. I dunno what the deal is there.
I'm pretty sure terrapins are some mind of ultra-hybrid tortoise/turtle thing. Probably created by a mad scientist somewhere
Next time find a stick dammit! One of my odest memories is of this guy named Phillip that was a teenager when I was just 5 or 6 years old. I was walking passed his house on my way home from school and he had caught a giant snapping turtle in a big turtle trap. It was an aluminum box the size of a large microwave. He and his friends had released the turtle in their yard and had surrounded it in a circle. They put a large stick in it's mouth and it had a strong grip of it. They pulled on the stick, elongating the neck and chopped it's head off right in front of me. I remember the eyes still moving in it's head and the body of the turtle still walked around for a bit with it's head chopped off. It was horrible. They made soup.
Fuck those dudes. I've had turtle before. Not the Western style turtle soup, but steamed and as a hotpot. It wasn't very good. I think that my love of turtles colored my experience, but all in all, I don't think the flavors were great. I really don't think people should eat turtles though. It takes too long for them to reach maturity and proper egg-laying size. Seeing something like that can really get to a kid. Were you ok after seeing that?
I tried turtle soup once when I was visiting the Cayman Islands, many years ago. It sounded like an interesting Caribbean delicacy, so I figured, when in Rome... The taste itself was fine, but I couldn't get rid of the mental imagery of what a turtle is, and what I was eating. My brain would replay an image of a turtle, complete in its shell, and then I'd focus on what was actually in the soup-- the meat of the turtle, which was the scrawny, reptilian flesh that was underneath that shell. I couldn't finish my bowl, and haven't had any desire for it since.
It's amazing how thinking too much about your food source can really inhibit it's enjoyment. Especially when eating meat. I'm curious though, what did it taste like? I would imagine that it's a bit fishy and somewhat earthy too?
It wasn't a pronounced taste, although to be fair this was probably around 20 years ago (good lord, really?) so I'm not sure how faithfully my memory serves. It was kind of a delicate texture and semi-overpowered by liberal amounts of jerk seasoning and some spices (cinnamon and nutmeg, if I recall). The first few bites went down well with a Red Stripe, but I kept envisioning the naked turtle sans shell and my stomach started to lurch a bit. I finished what I could so I wasn't too wasteful, but it was a fair amount of effort to keep it down after a while.
20 years is a long time to expect someone to remember the taste of soup they had. Thanks for trying :) The crazy thing is, the turtle that your soup was made of could still have been alive today. Snapper turtles can live up to 45 years. Pretty amazing.
Ugh. thenewgreen, one of my three people I actually worked with on a day to day basis at my last job has made turtle soup on numerous occasions. Needless to say, it's one of the many reasons why I did not like him. Turtles and Tortoises are my favorite animals, once I graduate and have some money I'm definitely get a pet turtle. r/turtles is a great subreddit and you learn a lot just from lurking it. It's really cool that you found one today. Hope you became friends with him/her.
I tried to be friendly. I think it got to where it was going. I think I'm subbed to /r/turtles, too. All I can say is, the general recommendation is . . . I think 4x the filtration power you'll need for whatever tank size you have. My recommendation is to double the recommended filtration power. Super cool animals.
Several years ago, I co-opted someone's garbage can to catch a large one that was in the middle of the road. Luckily, there was a pond just about 100 yards away, and a friend and I delivered him there. They are amazing creatures. The big ones will eat ducklings. :/
I came across one last summer, used a blanket to cover its eyes so we could grab the shell. But, a cop paid a bum to do the actual job... Which was disturbing...