Moving snappers isn’t hard if you don’t piss them off. I usually grip them near the base of the tail and slide one hand underneath and lift. The hand holding the tail is just to hold the turtle on my other hand, not to lift with. If you move them quickly, they usually don’t get upset.

Contrary to popular belief, they can’t bite a finger off. The tip of their beaks can cause deep punctures though and the sides of the beak will cause bruising.

Seriously though, don’t ever flip a turtle if you don’t have to – the weight of the turtle’s shell can crush its respiratory system and cause it some serious stress and discomfort.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esoil27Y0g8

By Ogden Nash is slightly different and somewhat more risque!

Although it does echo the point made in # 25. Hope its okay to post it here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjaBGAfWGSU

& for tortoise specifically :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHvqaRaDzQE

on Youtube.

Which also boasts this :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ul0gfCyeiyM

cat vs turtle (?) duel. Enjoy!

“The cat crept close between the men again, and its tail lay flat and its whiskers jerked now and then. The Sun dropped low toward the horizon and the dusty air was red and golden. The cat reached out a grey questioning paw and touched Joad’s coat. He looked around. ‘Hell, I forgot the turtle. I ain’t gonna pack it all over hell.’ He unwrapped the land turtle and pushed it under the house. But in a moment it was out, headed south-west as it had been from the first. The cat leaped at it and struck at its straining head and slashed at its moving feet. The old, hard, humorous head was pulled in, and the thick tail slapped in under the shell, and when the cat grew tired of walked off, the turtle, the turtle headed on south-west again.

Young Tom Joad and the preacher watched the turtle go – waving its legs and boosting its heavy high-domed shell along toward the south-west. The cat crept along behind it for a while, but in a dozen yards it arched its back to a strong taut bow and yawned and came stealthily back toward the seated men.

‘Where the hell do you s’pose he’s goin’?’ said Joad. ‘I seen turtles all my life. They’re always goin’ some place. They always seem to want to get there.’”

- Page 41, ‘The Grapes of Wrath’, John Steinbeck, Chancellor Press, first published 1939, this issue 1992.

*****

There we go – a quote including cats, turtles and astronomy (the setting sun and our planet’s atmosphere) for Caturtleday!

@27. Dave Mundt : Good poem quote – cheers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrGN5LmCQag

&

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/food_and_drink/heston_blumenthal/article6336443.ece

and the mock turtle character :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mock_Turtle

But a mock turtle video clip is a new one!

(Can’t believe I’m the first to use that reference here!)

“THE TORTOISE

Come crown my brow with leaves of myrtle,
I know the tortoise is a turtle,
Come carve my name in stone immortal,
I know the turtoise is a tortle.
I know to my profound despair,
I bet on one to beat a hare,
I also know I’m now a pauper,
Because of its tortley, turtley, torper. ”

(spoken in stately, dulcet tones)

regards
dave mundt

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turtle

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tortoise#Use_of_the_term_.22tortoise.22

&

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrapin_(disambiguation)

From the usual fount of all wisdom.

For scale, I’d guess his (hers? Who can tell?)

Another turtle hopefully!

They must be able to tell the difference otherwise they’d go extinct.

N

So all tortoises are turtles, but not all turtles are tortoises.

Kinda like: all pulsars are neutron stars, but not all neutrons stars are pulsars. :p

Also, it could be either a female searching for a nesting opportunity, or a male that has been pushed out of his home by a larger snapper.