On my way down to the family homestead, I found a Blanding's turtle stalled in the middle of a busy lane of traffic, trying to cross to the other side of the road. It wasn't going to make it with the number of fast moving cars zipping by and barely missing it (especially since it was going to cross into a lane that had a blind hill), so I gave it a hand.
Blanding's turtles are considered endangered in most of their range, so even though I always try to do turtle rescue when I can, I feel particularly motivated to help these beautiful turtles.
I know they like to be kept in their territory, but there was nowhere in that specific area that would be safe from almost certain traffic death, so I took it a very short way to a pond with good sandy spots for egg laying and a little stream to travel down to get anywhere that might be desirable. It was probably less than a quarter mile, as the crow flies from where it was found and in the general direction it was heading.
Once I put it down in the sand, it slowly came back out of its shell and checked out its new environment.
Then, it scuttled down into the pond and promptly disappeared. Not an absolutely perfect solution, but as close as I could come, under the circumstances.
3 comments:
Hugs to you, Turtle Rescuer ! from BetsyLee
I come from a long line of turtle rescuers. I actually did a Turtle Rescue carving many years ago (it had a three-toed box turtle depicted on it, though, not a Blanding's.) Hugs right back! :)
Hugs for sure!!!!
I was driving along M57 last week and saw a long shelled turtle on the side of the road. It didn't have an angel help it out unfortunately. It was a huge turtle.
Sheila
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