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Old 08-05-2018, 08:48 PM
 
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I used to love tortoises and turtles as a child. We lived in rural Oklahoma and I would pick them up and bring them home. At around age three I caught a tortoise and carried him into the house yelling, "Turn on the oven!" because my tribe ate tortoises and turtles back in the day.

My turtle named Frankie ate my catfish and escaped one night after it stormed all night and filled his bucket up with rain water.

And later in life I joined an Native group called Turtle Lodge. Indian way, I AM a turtle!

One time I was sitting outside just relaxing and two tortoises started fighting right in front of me. One of them got flipped on it's shell so I righted him.
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Old 08-05-2018, 09:13 PM
 
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We have gopher tortoises here in SWFL. I see one occasionally as he makes his rounds, they have a 2 mile raidius they travel. I saw one coming out of the woods as I went to the mail box and when I turned to look at him, he was already on the other side of the yard heading into an empty lot. The can move at a good clip!

They dig burrows in sandy banks. Our granddaughter said they let other animals into their burrow during fires, hurricanes, etc. I thought what a sweet thought, but I didn’t tell her that probably wasn’t true. It’s a good thing, I later read their burrows are quite long and many species of animals share their burrows.

Gopher Tortoise

Last edited by jean_ji; 08-05-2018 at 09:21 PM..
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Old 08-06-2018, 04:29 AM
 
Location: Swiftwater, PA
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I had a large snapping turtle defecate in the back of my pickup truck. Talk about stink; it brought tears to my eye. They feed on dead fish and their excrement really reeks!

I had to keep moving with the truck so the fumes did not catch up with me. Unfortunately, I realized, that I would run out of gas at some point! However; I was sure that I would never get pulled over for a ticket!
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Old 08-06-2018, 05:33 AM
 
Location: Nantahala National Forest, NC
27,074 posts, read 11,775,613 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by fisheye View Post
I had a large snapping turtle defecate in the back of my pickup truck. Talk about stink; it brought tears to my eye. They feed on dead fish and their excrement really reeks!

I had to keep moving with the truck so the fumes did not catch up with me. Unfortunately, I realized, that I would run out of gas at some point! However; I was sure that I would never get pulled over for a ticket!

What was he doing in your truck?

LOL, you did have to stop sometime....
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Old 08-06-2018, 06:35 AM
 
Location: Swiftwater, PA
18,763 posts, read 18,050,478 times
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Originally Posted by greatblueheron View Post
What was he doing in your truck?

LOL, you did have to stop sometime....

He was headed for a luncheon serving turtle soup. Although I had lost my appetite by the time he arrived!

Actually I would drop them off at a friend's house and he would keep them in a clear water pond for a week to purge their systems of anything that smelled too bad. Then he would process them.

Our lake had too many of them and I was removing the largest ones so our fish and small ducks had a better chance. We were allowed to catch them but the State regulated the size of the hook so we would not catch the small ones. Most of the turtles I caught were around 45 pounds. One was as small as 15 pounds. The hook size had to be at least one inch from the shaft to the point and had to have a three inch shank. You also had to write your name and address on the bottles we used. You attach one eighth inch bradded nylon line to the bottle and hook long enough to reach the bottom of the pond. Then you use a pretty good size piece of old meet or fish on the hook. If the bottle was no longer in the middle of the lake the next day and was against the side; you probably had a turtle. Altogether I think that I removed eight large turtles from the lake. I have not fished for turtles for years (my turtle soup preparing friend died) and I presume it is again infested with more large turtles.
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Old 08-06-2018, 08:07 AM
 
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Not really a turtle story of MINE, but a friend of mine up until about 3 weeks ago, had a large sulcate tortoise. She lives in the Dallas area, and kept the tortoise in a big pen, in her large and rural yard.


About 3 weeks ago, the tortoise got out, but she didn't realize it. She lives a couple of hundred yards from a 2 lane highway, and by the time she realized the tortoise was gone, she worried that it would head for the highway, so she started walking toward the road. She heard some commotion, and by the time she got to the road, she saw a truck pull away.


She thinks the commotion was because the occupants of the truck found the tortoise, and picked it up.


She's heart broken over it. Has all kinds of bulletins out, and groups trying to help her find it.
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Old 08-06-2018, 08:20 AM
 
Location: Nantahala National Forest, NC
27,074 posts, read 11,775,613 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Sassybluesy View Post
Not really a turtle story of MINE, but a friend of mine up until about 3 weeks ago, had a large sulcate tortoise. She lives in the Dallas area, and kept the tortoise in a big pen, in her large and rural yard.


About 3 weeks ago, the tortoise got out, but she didn't realize it. She lives a couple of hundred yards from a 2 lane highway, and by the time she realized the tortoise was gone, she worried that it would head for the highway, so she started walking toward the road. She heard some commotion, and by the time she got to the road, she saw a truck pull away.


She thinks the commotion was because the occupants of the truck found the tortoise, and picked it up.


She's heart broken over it. Has all kinds of bulletins out, and groups trying to help her find it.

Oh of course she's sad....I'm so sorry someone took her tortoise. Are they just roaming about in the wild where you live?
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Old 08-06-2018, 09:19 AM
 
Location: Not where I want to be
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I used to have the little green turtles from the dime store too. They all died. Thinking back, they all probably died from starvation.
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Old 08-06-2018, 10:14 AM
 
Location: Chicago area
18,761 posts, read 11,755,546 times
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I saw a giant turtle on the beach in Mexico missing a flipper that was trying to dig a hole to lay eggs. I felt sorry for her so I started digging where her missing flipper was. She stopped digging and moved to another spot. Okay, I started helping her again. She stopped digging and moved to another spot. Okay I'm done miss picky. Actually it was really fun being that close to something so magnificent.

When I was younger a friend and neighbor brought back a bunch of box turtles and a couple escaped into our yard. I was with another friend and we were feeding them tomatoes. My friend did something to spook the turtle and it closed up with her finger stuck as well. I just remember poking it in the other end to get it to open up.

Our neighbor now had a box turtle for years and I would feed and water it while they were on vacation. He finally took it back to where he got it and let it go. I kind of missed it. We don't see them here.

I used to see some beautiful painted turtles around here once in awhile, but I remember one in Wisconsin that flopped around and tried to bite us if we got too close. Yikes.

We visited a turtle farm on Grand Cayman and that was fun. Even the smaller ones were really heavy.

My brother took his turtle to show and tell. It was one of those cute little green ones that grew really big. One bigger kid tried to take it away from him and he told me to take the turtle home. I grabbed it and ran home. He stayed behind and whipped that older kid a new one. You just don't get between a boy and his pet turtle.
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Old 08-06-2018, 10:36 AM
 
13,262 posts, read 7,978,903 times
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Originally Posted by greatblueheron View Post
Oh of course she's sad....I'm so sorry someone took her tortoise. Are they just roaming about in the wild where you live?

My friend that this happened to lives in Texas. I lie in Missouri. Her tortoise is not native to Texas I don't think. She said a friend gave it to her, and made her promise to take care of it. It's one of the reasons she feels so bad about it, because she feels like she broke her promise.


Around my parts, I see the most turtles in the spring. Like a lot of people have said, we stop when and where it's safe to move them to the other side of the road.


And we have a place out in the country, once in a blue moon we'll see one on our property, and since we have lake front property, they like to sun themselves on the bank sometimes.


And then, where I work, we're close to the Missouri River, and we have canals...I guess they're canals...anyway, bodies of water that serve as run-offs of the river. So, we see lots of water turtles very often.
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