Met a new neighbour today…

Went for a walk to run some errands and met this fine friend. I love snapping turtles. Of all the critters I say are my favourite, snapping turtles are definitely my favourite. They’re slow and resilient and ancient. They’re the antimatter to everything that spins too fast and too recklessly. They move through a world that drives right over them, and still they persist. Or try to. As we regularly destroy their habitat, and their numbers dwindle.

To misquote Aldo Leopold’s comment about wilderness:

"I am glad I will not be young in a future without turtles."

But that future, like all futures, hasn’t happened yet. And I live here, in the present. Where there are still turtles, and if we don’t miss it, still time.

🐢📖: Unlike other turtles, snappers are physically unable to retreat into their shells. Their “snap” looks quite different, in that light. If you were frightened or threatened, but you can’t run, and you can’t hide… what would you do?

From the wonderful turtle heroes at The Ontario Turtle Conservation Centre:

"Despite all the stories about them, the Common Snapping turtle doesn’t have a bite force strong enough to “take off a finger”. It would of course be painful, and likely bleed – but nothing like the exaggerated myths that are commonly shared."