Turtle season is winding down. This weekend I only went out to two sites and the weather was not ideal. It was very cloudy and on the cool side. It was pouring a few miles away. The first site I found this little one. I had been shoving my hand in a mucky hole and noticed it in the mud nearby. I grabbed it and was not able to confidently identify it since it pulled istelf into its shell. I consulted my supervisor and she was unsure as well. So we waited a few minutes to see if it would come out of its shell and reveal it's true identity. No such luck. She suggested putting it on the white pages of the notebook since she's had luck that way. Still no movement so I started walking through the marsh with the open notebook and wee one on top. I felt like a waiter. I must have walked around at least 20 minutes and progress was slow. After 10 minutes, one foot was out. Then another. From my observations of my baby painted turtles, I've seen this vibrations of the limbs. They start moving them in and out a wee bit. This is a sign that the limbs will come out. I added a small snail to the notebook in hopes that a friend would help. The snail ended up on top of the turtlet and still no real progress. Finally all limbs were out but the head was still mostly in and it started walking around like that. Finally the head came out just enough and the telltale mark was seen. It was a super rare turtlet. It was put back where we found it and off it went into the muck. Live strong wee one!
Turtle season is winding down. This weekend I only went out to two sites and the weather was not ideal. It was very cloudy and on the cool side. It was pouring a few miles away. The first site I found this little one. I had been shoving my hand in a mucky hole and noticed it in the mud nearby. I grabbed it and was not able to confidently identify it since it pulled istelf into its shell. I consulted my supervisor and she was unsure as well. So we waited a few minutes to see if it would come out of its shell and reveal it's true identity. No such luck. She suggested putting it on the white pages of the notebook since she's had luck that way. Still no movement so I started walking through the marsh with the open notebook and wee one on top. I felt like a waiter. I must have walked around at least 20 minutes and progress was slow. After 10 minutes, one foot was out. Then another. From my observations of my baby painted turtles, I've seen this vibrations of the limbs. They start moving them in and out a wee bit. This is a sign that the limbs will come out. I added a small snail to the notebook in hopes that a friend would help. The snail ended up on top of the turtlet and still no real progress. Finally all limbs were out but the head was still mostly in and it started walking around like that. Finally the head came out just enough and the telltale mark was seen. It was a super rare turtlet. It was put back where we found it and off it went into the muck. Live strong wee one!
1 comment:
This is so cool. The snail trick is unreal. Live strong!
Post a Comment