Bright Idea #263 - How to Rescue a Turtle

So I dont know what it is with me and "Bright Ideas". In recent memory there was the no infamous, thanks to my best friend Chris, the "Behive Incident", the "Golf Ball Incident", the "Duck Incident" and now I can add one more to the list... the "Windmeadows Turtle Incident". A while ago I posted this image of a Floridian Soft Shell Turtle. Now the one that concerns this story has a shell diameter of about 40 cm / 16 inches.



Jenee and I were heading out to lunch after a nice long ride in the summer sun when we spotted our new friend "Clive" making his way across the car park. Pulling up next to him I opened the door and proceeded to talk to him. He actually poked his head out of his shell and looked at me, and in a way making me feel less stupid for talking to a turtle. After a quick discussion we decided that Clive needed to be relocated to the stream where he was apparently heading. So I picked him up, and got Jenee to open the boot. As I was making my way to the car Clive popped his head out again and looked up at me revealing a decent sized fishing hook caught in his upper jaw.

Now being the nature conservationist that I am, I decided that it was my duty to try an remove said hook. Of course, everyone knows that the first thing to do when attempting to remove a hook from a mouth, is to see if said animal will let you put your hands near its head. Fair enough I thought, and since my hands were tired up doing the holding I suggested that Jenee should put her pinky on the scientific chopping block. After I was informed that it was a dumb idea and if I wanted to help the animal, then I should use my own pinky. Fair enough I thought, so I propped Clive

against my leg with on hand and proceeded to move my free hand towards his mouth. Now, perhaps I should have thought this through some more, at the very least I should have known better, because I have watched one of these turtles snap small fry in the stream near my work but I wasn't expecting him to move very fast at all. The truth was, he snapped at me so fast that he caught me off guard and managed to brush my finger as I flinched away from him. As a result I dropped poor Clive and he landed on the tarmac with a thud.

So, lesson learned. Don't put your hand near the mouth of a turtle, lets just be thankful he wasn't one of these: an Alligator Snapping Turtle. Why? because I would have most likely lost a finger.

In the end, Clive was safely relocated to his new pond and only had to endure a rather fast trip around the complex with me holding him over the back of the car. Just another adventure...