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More wildlife: A snapping turtle shows up in Charlestown
By adamg on Wed, 06/01/2016 - 9:22pm
EastieStrong spotted a very large snapping turtle in the grass this evening on Old Landing Way, near the ball field and Medford Street, in Charlestown - nowhere near any fresh water that is its natural habitat.
Animal Control won't come get it. It's far away from natural habitat. Likely dumped.
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Comments
Adorable!
Hardly
Nasty-tempered; they will turn on you and bite hard, if you get too close. Before that, they will make a loud hissing sound. Stay away, their bite will damage you. They also grow much bigger than the one in the picture, and live up to 100 years old, growing until they die. As turtles go, they are ugly.
Both can be true!
Plenty of mean tempered animals also look cute :) Otters are adorable but can be super nasty to each other. Baby birds kill their siblings but look cuddly. Kittens torture their food for fun. No need to single out snappers, though the warning to stay away is a good one.
Good point, peter.
This:
is often true, especially because the cutest-looking ones can also be even more dangerous, made that way, at least by virtue not only of their nasty temperaments and physical capacity for doing horrific damage, but also by virtue of their looks, which can fool an unsuspecting person or animal.
Cute?
If anyone who's calling snapping turtles "cute" has ever met one, I will be very surprised.
Saying that snapping turtles will cause damage--an understatemen
Saying that snapping turtles will cause damage is a real understatement; They've been known to take off human digits (i. e. fingers and/or toes!)!
Maybe ARL will come?
Maybe ARL will come?
The Mystic River isn't fresh
The Mystic River isn't fresh water? Snapping turtles can walk remarkably far and move pretty fast when it's warm out.
Tidal below the Earhart Dam
It is a former estuary, now dam controlled. This is the tidal portion of the river. There is still salt intrusion up as far as Blessing of the Bay in Somerville, even with the dam.
The Animal Rescue League will
The Animal Rescue League will come get it during normal business hours hopefully. People that dump these animals suck.
Ooh, boy! Snapping turtles are dangerous.
It's best to leave it alone and contact the Animal Rescue League or possibly the Humane Society right away if nobody from Animal Control will come and pick it up. Why in the world would people want snapping turtles as pets, anyway, especially since they've been known to take off human fingers and/or toes when they bite?!?
Not to single out snapping turtles in particular, but some animals are clearly not meant to have as pets, and snapping turtles are among them.
Here's hoping and praying that someone from the Animal Rescue League or whatever will come and pick up that snapping turtle before it does bite somebody's toes or fingers off!
Millions of years of iterative design
That's some ancient badass right there. Don't mess with it.
The John Day Fossil Beds in Oregon have an interpretive exhibit with replica fossils. Last time I was out there, they had a turtle fossil that was about 39 million years old, but looks exactly like this dude in Charlestown.
moving snappers
if any enterprising good samaritan tries to move this snapper to fresh water, i'd suggest using a big trash can (empty, obviously). i had to move a bunch as a kid and that method kept my hands out of harms way. i used a push broom to get the turtles into the trash can. once near the water, i just titled the can down and the turtles would do the rest.
that all said, be careful. snapping turtles are kinda dicks and will do everything they can to bite you.
Don't move snappers
They are generally going somewhere with intent and will still try to get there. If you move them, they will not know how to get back to their 'home' habitat.
I guess if they are trying to cross a busy road, help them across (not back) but you shouldn't just throw them in the nearest body of water.
Rescue and/or control is not
Rescue and/or control is not among the many thoughts this turtle inpires in me. Can anyone who sees it still doubt its descendants will on some far off November day hatch in a nest dug in the dust of the bones of the last person to ever inhabit this world ?