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| Member |
Dogs found a visitor to our front yard Friday.     Looks like it may have been a she and she left us a present in the front yard. Maybe baby turtles in the next couple of months! ____________________________ Everybody knows that the dice are loaded | ||
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My dog crosses the line |
Awesome Ghillie suit! | |||
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Alea iacta est |
Wow, that’s pretty cool. I would love to see wild turtles in person. The “lol” thread | |||
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Member |
That was exactly my first thought. Neat to see in your own yard. If you like religion, laws or sausage, then you shouldn't watch them being made. | |||
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| Savor the limelight |
I'd keep my head on a swivel, she could be a decoy. My kids were walking on the beach when we got up to Michigan this summer and came across what they thought was a tire buried in the sand. Next thing you know the three of them and my wife are screaming. They had started yanking on it and digging it out only to find it was a large snapping turtle and it wasn't happy about being disturbed. | |||
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Prepared for the Worst, Providing the Best |
Come to the midwest...this time of the year they're everywhere. They come out to lay eggs, and for some reason their tiny brains usually insist that the best place to do that is on the opposite side of a busy road. If I can safely do so, I move them, but it's a losing battle. I did have a kinda different experience with one last month, though. I was out on the range helping with some training for a new class of reserve officers, and this stupid critter decided to come crawling down the backstop berm while everybody was shooting. They're not really scared of anything. When they called cold range, we decided it was best to relocate him, so he didn't eat a bullet from some trigger-happy rookie. This guy was one of the bigger ones I've seen this year, and he really wanted a piece of my leg. Of course my buddy who took the pic is laughing and hollering at me the whole time, hence my stupid facial expression...I think I was yelling something back. Ultimately Mr. (or Mrs.) snapper got safely relocated off the range and I still have all my fingers and other bits.  | |||
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| Savor the limelight |
^^^Before you try to help another snapper, please learn how to pick one up and carry it. Picking one up by the tail can cause damage anywhere along it's spinal column. | |||
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| Prepared for the Worst, Providing the Best |
Well then please educate me. This is the only way I've ever seen it done. It was either that or he was gonna get shot. With painted turtles and red eared sliders I just grab them on either side of the shell and carry them, but they also aren't trying to eat my fingers when I do it. Didn't seem to bother this guy much, as he took off after I let him go, but if there's a better way I'd be happy to learn. | |||
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| Savor the limelight |
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safe & sound |
Haven't run across any nests, but we encounter a variety of turtles pretty regularly. We found this little guy (or girl) out in the driveway the other day. My 9 year old spotted him and removed him as we had several trucks coming and going at the time.   | |||
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| hello darkness my old friend  |
Thanks for caring to move it. Lucky you could pick it up. I was at a shoot with other LEO's down in St George Utah ten years ago or so. The range is outdoors and near the desert tortoise habitat. One of those big green federally protected turtles happened on to the range. We had to clear out and couldn't approach the turtle because if we had scared it the turtle can pisses all over the place and that can dehydrate and kill the animal. We had to sit quietly and wait. 4 hours later it crawled over the berm exited the range. Cool to see but sure wasted our day. | |||
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member |
We may have a nest, somewhere, but all we see is this little guy. It (unknown sex) comes from the direction of the west wash, but from inside our fence (5 acres inside 6ft fencing). It visits the front of the house every now and then. We've been seeing it for about 15 years now, and it has grown very slowly (as is the nature of the desert tortoise). About 7" now, but only 4" when we first saw it. It probably won't reach the full 15" size until we're long gone. Neat to watch it, though. It even once paraded right in front of our front porch.  When in doubt, mumble | |||
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| Husband, Father, Aggie, all around good guy!  |
very cool turtle / Tortoise stories ^^^ around here in our bayous / water retention areas we have the flat leathery types and then the occasional pissed off snapping type that get a little bigger and stand their ground if you approach them. | |||
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| I Am The Walrus |
Turtles are so awesome. We have 3 in a 55 gallon aquarium. Being in Orlando, it’s not unusual for us to see turtles walking along the street. I pick them up with a shovel and move them to the side of the street where the pond is. At least they won’t get run over by some fool watching their cell phone more than the road. We have a house In the cul-de-sac where a bunch of college kids live. One day I’m walking by with the dog and one of the kids says to me, “if I didn’t show someone, no one would believe me but there’s a turtle in my garage next to the washing machine.” I look and there’s a turtle that had to be 20 pounds in there. I grabbed my shovel, scooped him up and brought him to the pond but didn’t put him in the water. He was heavy! _____________ | |||
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| Member |
We had a Gopher Tortoise somewhere near my home, pretty common, and it used to come by during the day and would eat my lawn or what was on it. It was pretty cool to see. I was amazed at how big there homes/holes/mazes in the ground can be. | |||
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| member |
AZ law (or G&F regs) say we're not even allowed to touch or pick up a wild desert tortoise. Part of the reason, as noted in another thread, is that they will pee their entire bladder as a self-defense mechanism. But that urine storage is very important to their survival, and they could die if you touch them. You can keep one as a pet with a special license from G&F, probably having to show expertise about them and providing a proper habitat. Our next door neighbor keeps a Sulcata tortoise (African desert tortoise), which can grow to over 230 lbs and live 70 years. When in doubt, mumble | |||
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