Baby Turtles!

[Jess P]

I am making a long story short, but here it goes.

In June my dad came home to find a snapper turtle digging around in his yard. Of course, he doesn't want his lawn destroyed so he took the angry turtle and brought it down to the swamp in his yard. The next day the turtle was back and it turns out she was laying eggs. My dad loves the animals that come to his house (Deer, foxes, rabbits, skunks, birds of all kinds, weasles etc. except he dislikes the coyote and the squirrels) so he of course took action to put mesh over the spot where the eggs were layed and made it his duty to protect the nest. He researched and they were due around August. Well, this is the e-mail my dad sent me.

The female laid her eggs back on June 14th. That meant the hatching date should have been sometime mid-August.
We hadn’t seen any activity at the egg site so decided it was time to take a look and see what was going on.

On Sunday Kate and I carefully uncovered the area where the eggs were laid. It turned out the eggs were a bit farther

back than we thought. As careful as we were, I ended up damaging two of the eggs while uncovering them. One

was infertile but the other had a large black object in it. When I removed the damaged egg we could clearly see a

completely formed baby turtle in a membranous sac with it’s yolk sac inside. We didn’t know what to do. Clearly,

we couldn’t re-bury the egg since it was opened and leaving the embryo outside meant certain death (and a massive

guilt trip for me). We took the embryo inside, carefully washed it off and placed it in a beaker with a small amount of

water. Within an hour it started to move and slowly pushed its leg and then its tail through the membrane. Another hour

later it had freed itself from the sac and had lifted its head above the water. The picture was taken about 5hrs after it

was removed from its egg. By that time we had moved it from the beaker to a glass pie plate and it began motoring

around the plate. Frank (dad's friend) requested that we name him Toby after his turtle from the famous days of ‘Chamalon City’.

We estimate more than a dozen eggs are in the clutch and they have all been re-buried and a protective mesh grid

placed over them to keep predators from digging them up. It’s possible that the rest of the eggs may winter under-

ground. We’ll keep you posted.

Gerry & Kate (and Toby)

Here is the picture of Toby! Dad is going to be letting Toby go down to the swamp.

 

[sharon]

Too cute!! I've had baby snappers a couple times in aquarium setups. They are really interesting to have as pets, but you sure have to be careful how you handle them! even the tiny little squirts! :new_shocked: :lol:

 

[Jill]

Awww! I have to admit, Toby is kind of cute! I was hoping it would be about baby box turtles. Those I am not afraid to pick up even when they are grown

I think that's pretty neat how your dad is looking out for Toby and the other turtles-to-be!

 

[Shari]

Very adorable!

Just glad I am not the one picking the cutie up!

 

[Jess P]

I called my dad today and I got an update. Toby was ready to go so dad let him loose in the stream/pond out back. He took off so quickly! The other babies should be born next winter.

 

[RAPfrosty]

How cool is that!?! I have two turtles (red eared sliders) and they are just the coolest things.

 

[Sterling]

That's awesome!!! Looks like your Dad is a wildlife conservationist. :aktion033: I have always been in awe of these snapping turtles....aside from crocs they are one of the closest looking creatures we have nowadays to the dinosaur.