flat tire turtle rescue!

irishsnakes · #1 (**permalink**) 05-23-2004, 04:54 PM

my wife called, flat tire at walmart. before i can get across the tracks, the arms come down for a slow moving coal train. at the same time i see a 4-5in. common snapper warming himself on a rail. i hop out and grab him in what i thought was plenty of time. the train crew thought otherwise and yelled various comments about my ancestry and anatomy.oh well, theyll get over it. the turtle would not. i get the wife back on the road but before i can get to a creek for the release, i come across a10 in. red ear slider in the middle of a two lane highway.the other drivers were not amused when i locked em up and pulled off the road. i had to wait for 5 cars to pass, scared i would hear a disgusting crunch but we got lucky! finally i get to the creek,unfortunately it is out of the banks from two days of heavy rains which means wading through a sea of itch weed and and poison ivy, of coase im wearing shorts and flip flops.
oh well, final score turtles 2 wheels 0.

JuliusSqueezer · #2 (**permalink**) 05-23-2004, 05:22 PM

cool! Great job. That snapper was a female though, not a he. You won't find a male out and away from the water. Females come out after a good rain to find a spot to lay their eggs this time of year. So you may have saved a lot more than just 2 depending on if she already dropped her eggs or not.

JuliusSqueezer · #3 (**permalink**) 05-23-2004, 05:23 PM

oh wait, 4-5 inches? That's actually an odd find. How far are these tracks from the water?

haroldo359 · #4 (**permalink**) 05-23-2004, 05:48 PM

good job!

irishsnakes · #5 (**permalink**) 05-23-2004, 07:35 PM

js, "she" may have been 6-7in.max over the carapace. the nearest is a pond about 1/2 mi away but it belongs to the schools and is fenced with a locked gate.

Wrasse · #6 (**permalink**) 05-23-2004, 09:12 PM

Well done !

An excitement filled day for you. For the turtles, all you did was ruin their sunshine.

toker · #7 (**permalink**) 05-24-2004, 04:09 PM

Way to go! I always stop when I see a turtle in the road, I know I tick a lot of people off but hey, at least the critter has a chance.

Keep up the good work.

telefrag · #8 (**permalink**) 05-24-2004, 04:20 PM

Im glad you were able to save the turtles from an almost certain demise.

but one thing you HAVE to remember is safety.

If slamming on your breaks to scoot a animal off the road may cause a worse accident, then by all means think of yourself and your family first.

As heartbreaking as it may be, it would of been less painful to your wife to hear about a poor turtle getting smacked (which happens regardless of anything you can do) then you getting hit by a car, or getting in a serious accident.

I stop for my fair share of animals crossing the road, but if there is ever any doubt that it can be done without risk of injury to myself, or others,
Than I leave the animal to the powers that be, and let fate run its course.

JuliusSqueezer · #9 (**permalink**) 05-24-2004, 04:38 PM

Frag is dead on. If you MUST leave one on a busy road, think of it like this...The buzzards gotta eat too.

telefrag · #10 (**permalink**) 05-24-2004, 04:54 PM

speaking of freeways and DOR's, I had the most unusual DOR of my life yesterday.

Driving north on 35 up from San Antonio, I saw a squatty dead snake on the access road, so I went back to look.

It was a Ball python.

crazy eh?

Ed_r · #11 (**permalink**) 05-24-2004, 06:14 PM

No more crazy than Burms in the everglades. they didnt migrate here on their own unfortunately

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