Urban Wildlife

We don’t live in the country, exactly, but like many suburbanites we are surrounded by wildlife. Coyotes, owls, hawks, foxes, ducks, geese and occasionally eagles–and snapping turtles. They live in our pond, and every year mother snapping turtles crawl across the street to lay eggs, then make their way back to the pond. A snapping turtle is like a tank, in miniature, only much tougher. And probably stupider. It’s OK to stand behind a snapping turtle, but don’t get in its way. Once the turtles make their way back to the pond, you’ll see a line of ducklings or goslings swimming along behind a mother duck or goose, and suddenly the last one in line will disappear. Dinner for a snapping turtle.
Snapping turtles are one of those ancient life forms that haven’t needed to progress for a long time. When you weigh 20 pounds or so, are surrounded with armor and can bite off anything in your path, you don’t have many predators.
Tonight we were eating takeout sushi when another girl came to pick up my middle daughter and pointed out that a snapping turtle and large Canada goose were hanging out in our cul-de-sac. I took this photo of my son Eric with the turtle:
EricTurtle221.jpg
Notice the cut-off Power Line t-shirt!

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