Re: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] Turtles and iBooks

[Jonathan King <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

On Tue, 12 Jun 2001, Stephen Montgomery-Smith wrote:

> Neil Bradshaw wrote:
> > 
> > Does anyone know why any turle in its right mind would wander through our
> > campus? I came across one at Hitt St. and Rollins St. frantically running
> > across the street while cars went by during rush hour traffic. I stopped
> > my car, picked it up, drove it to a creek ONE HANDED with a manual
> > transmission (that takes talent with my old car), scaled rocks alongside a
> > creek on South Providence, and dropped it in the water.
> 
> I have seen turtles all around town.  I used to pick them up also, and
> then someone told me it might be a snapping turtle and take a finger off.

Snapping turtles are indeed not very fun creatures.  They are strong,
mean, fearless, and have long enough necks to reach around and bite you if
you're not careful.  Fortunately, they are also pretty easy to identify;
their carapaces are not boxy, and their scutes (the sub-pieces on the back
of the shell) protrude (they're "bumpy"), and they have long tails.  They
really don't look like anything you'd want to pick up. :-)  You also don't
usually see them on land, although where I was growing up you sometimes
did run across confused egg-laying females.

The turtles I've seen on the roads around here are mostly box turtles,
with the occasional "painted turtle" (as they are known where I grew up)  
or "slider" thrown in. Box turtles have (often very) high-domed shells and
are often quite shy.  "Flatter" turtles, especially those with webbed
feet, are usually at least part-time swimmers.

What I always do is just put them on the other side of the road they were
crossing, since I suspect they generally know where they are and where
they are going better than you do.  Tortoises get to be decades old;
animals that are long-lived are generally those whose survival strategies
depend on learning from the environment (or teaching their young).  So,
perhaps not surprisingly, tortoises develop very good internal "maps" of
their domains; most species exhibit really, really strong place learning.
Very impressive for an animal that has no real cerebral cortex (not that
tortoise brains are unimpressive in their own way).

jking

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