I think I’ve posted about this before, but my alligator snapper is a palm-sized ball of cuteness. He know his name, and swims over, mouth open, for me to hand-feed him. I know he’ll get too big and ugly, but dang it, he’s teh cute right now.
Stephen King wrote a story that started that way…I’d be careful if I were you.
I’ve found a way to get snappers - even the big ones - out of the road. Poke at 'em, but with something they can bite and hang on to. Then drag them by the mouth out of the road. I found that the top of a rubber boot is pretty safe, and if they put a hole in it - well, it was the top edge, anyhow.
I know they’re pretty rough characters, but, I’ve had some good experience in moving them, trained in it at a wildlife shelter.
We have snappers moving across the road every year from the pond across the road to the one next to the house, and, seeing one try, usually a small one, 2’ from head to tail, I’ll go out and help it, since folks travel fast on the road. I usually take a flat spade shovel and big tote sort of container for distance to scoop 'em up , FROM THE BACK END, then take 'em across to where they were headed. You can also grip them on the back third of the shell to lift them, but that’s not for anyone inexperienced, as their show of bite and scrambling claws will be terrifying. Just to show that they can be handled if you know their habits.
We did have one snapper at the wildlife shelter with a hit-by-car shell injury, who became acclimated to life there in recuperation, and was pretty docile in her regimen of living in a bathtub, being lifted out into a yard for R&R, in the year it took for her shell to heal. I was really amazed at that, had previously thought that snappy behaviour would be hard-wired. She would look around and scoot her legs a bit, but the aggressive behavior disappeared with time. That was a delight to observe, and she eventually healed up and was released.
In one of my times ferrying a snapper across the road at home, a state trooper pulled up… He wanted to see what I was doing, really interested. Not from any trespass of the law, but, from his having had people call and ask for help with it. I showed him how I handled them, and what to watch for: they are lightning fast with the bite, but can only go so far back over the shell, watch the claws, etc, etc, mainly, if you know what the parameters are, and have quick reflexes, you can do it. He was really appreciative, saying " I feel sorry for them, trying to cross the road, and when people call when they’re in the yard, they are terrified…Thanks." It was really sweet to see he wanted to help the snappers !"
They (snappers) can be picked up and moved by the tail but hard core snapper fans claim this can injure them. There is a way to handle them by thier lower shell where they can’t reach with the jaws but when I move them off the road I just use the tail. I’ve taken probably fifty of them off the road and to a safer pond over the years. The females come out of the water and wander looking for the best place to lay eggs, I wonder what gets them out at this time of year? Ponds drying up or getting over crowded maybe?
You don’t want them latching on to you but they don’t want to come after you either. They just really, really don’t want to be messed with.
We picked one ab out a year ago crossing I-66. He’d already been hit by a car, and his shell was cracked over his back legs, and he was leaking blood and some vile-looking greenish-yellow curdled fluid. I thought that meant some very serious injury but we later learned it was urine hee was dumping to deter predators.
He was a good-szed one, easily half again bigger than a dinner plate or larger. There was absolutely no safety for him on a densely-traveled six-lane highway, and he would probably cause a car crash if hit solidly, as he was much bigger than a speed bump.
We knew enough to be wary of his bite and respect his speed. But my wife had stopped right in the middle of her lane and a phalanx of cars was rocketing toward us at 75 miles an hour, so there was imply no time at all for niceties. She grabbed a sheet we kept in the car for the dogs to shed on, wrapped it around her hands, wrapped them around him, and she handed him to me to put between my legs.
You know, on the floor of the car.
So as we peeled out to avoid being overrun from behind, I sat in the passenger seat with this HUGE turtle bleeding on a piece of cardboard in the footwell, my own feet raised as high as I could hold them, and as he tried to scramble up into my lao, I held him down as forcefully, yet as gingerly, as possible.
Meanwhile, after a few quick calls, my wife got in touch with a reptile rescue. They said there’s only one place they trust to work on an injured turtle – SEAVS.
Since SEAVS is our own vet for our birds, we knew what to do from there. Illegally crossing the highway at an “AUTHORIZED VEHICLES ONLY” emergency crossover, we flew back the way we had come, and phoned ahead.
The staff there is great. They told us to bring him in ASAP and they’d take care of him (no charge). The vet added that it’s important to save the large reptiles (maybe because they’re under extra pressure in our environment? I didn’t ask).
They really meant ASAP – when we pulled up they had the door braced open, and rather than negotiate a transfer from my hands to theirs, they just waved me through into the operating room area. I ran in holding the heavy turtle as far from my torso as I could, his arms and head waving about, blood dripping.
The staff thanked us for looking out for him (they’re real “herp” fans there) and we resumed our trip. We later learned his injury was not very severe, and they were able to fuse his cracked shell. One of the staff took him home and fostered him until he was strong enough to be released.
Since we are prone to doing this kind of thing, I think I need to assemble a wildlife kit of gloves, nets, and assorted tools so we can do a less-impromptu rescue next time.
Thanks to all the other Dopers who have saved turtles from highway death!
As a follow-up, we drove up the highway yesterday, dreading that we would see a big splat on the road where the turtle used to be. Amazingly, he must have made it off the road, as there was no sign of turtle goo. Either that or somebody wanted turtle soup. I think the sight of that thing hissing, rising up on its tippy-toes and trying to get at her has slightly unhinged my wife, however.
They can definitely muster the ol’ prehistoric menace shtick.
Somebody wrote a monster book about a huge killer turtle. I cannot remember the title, but ti was a spooky book when I was young.