A strange incident..crushed turtles...

[chain]

Last Monday morning was a very cold day, temp about twenty, wind blowing, a day not for turtles to be out basking in the sun. I had taken a drive around on a rural hard-surfaced road. I noticed what I first thought was a freshly road-killed animal. A hundred yards or so there were several more road kills, they appeared to be water terrapins. I counted eight turtles, crushed, apparently from someone driving over them, all lay within a quarter mile and in the middle of the road.

Was someone trapping turtles and the container turned over and the turtles fell out on the road?

Are turtles collectables, are they sold or exported ?

At in any rate, this was a very bad deed.

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

I saw a news segment on this very thing back around the first of the year. 2 students did a paper on this very subject.

They took a FAKE Turtle and set it in the road. They counted the cars that ran over the Turtle and counted the ones that missed it. It was over whelming the number of drivers that PURPOSELY ran over the Turtle.  >:(

[thecfarm]

I saw that too. I would go around a turtle. But put a coon,wood chunk,fox, in the road and I'm a heading for it. Just have to keep it on the tar with the wife's car. She was not happy when gravel started flying.  ;D
But with that many turtles in the road,you are bound to hit at least one,especially if another car is coming.

[Jeff]

If avoidable, I don't run over any of God's creatures. Yes, that includes snakes.

[Axe Handle Hound]

Sadly I'd guess someone ran them over through negligence or purpose.  I watched a person in front of me once accelerate to run over a hen pheasant and her chicks.  They were crossing the road up the highway and had plenty of room to safely get across, but the person in front of me managed to get every one of them and never even tapped his brakes.  It's one thing to hit something because you had no time to avoid it or if avoiding it could put you in harms way, but it's another to do it on purpose just for the entertainment. 

[thecfarm]

I'm not that mean sprited of a man by the way. ;D Just for the record in my 30 odd years of driving,coon,foxs,wood chunk,I only ran over a couple. My aim is not good with 4 wheels under me.  ;D

[bama20a]

If avoidable, I don't run over any of God's creatures. Yes, that includes snakes.

+1

[Jeff]

Tammy hits a lot of critters driving school bus. Swerving or heavy braking of a school bus is not safe. I have a standing joe with Tammy. Whenever I see a roadkill when she is with me, I ask her when was it she had been here before.

[bama20a]

Jeff telling about Tammy driving a bus reminded me of a story that happened several years back.
A good friend of mine wife also drove a bus, We was sitting around one day just talking & she told about another bus driver that was just ahead of her.Said he ran over so-in-so's winny dog (Dash Hound),My friend ask her did it kill it? Oh yes she replied,He got it with the front tires also the back tires,
They had a son that was retarded,sitting there taking it all in. He looked funny,Rubbed his head,Then said dang that was a long dog :D

[doctorb]

I pulled into the small town closest to our Ontario cabin last summer, and there was a box turtle in the road.  The adjacent house was pretty close to the road, and had a nice front porch which was occupied by 5 or 6 young adults having a few beverages.  When I stopped to avoid hitting the turtle, I could see it was a fake.  Had a fun conversation with the group, who were just having a good time, watching how different drivers reacted to the turtle.  They invited me to join them for a beer, but I had to get to the cabin.  No, I didn't run over it as I drove away. ;D

[chain]

There was a  big crack-down on turtle trapping here in Missouri a few years back. I just can't recall what was going on, seems maybe a intrastate selling, or perhaps a International black market trade of certain turtles..maybe to the far East. I shouldn't speculate.

But I do know that in our own pond of 15 acres we found turtle traps one summer and piles of dead turtles on the bank; they apparently drowned before the trapper could gather them. The CAs wanted the turtle trappers real bad, but never caught them.

[Jay C. White Cloud]

Commercial collectors will go out this time of year because they can "probe," or "noodle," for the little guys, and think they won't get caught.  It does really sound like they did and lost a load out of their vehicle.

I have trout ponds, and because of my love of reptiles in general, I have many pet turtles.  My one neighbor will hit them on purpose during nesting season if SHE sees them in the road...I have a fake one in my drive way full off spikes just close enough to the road to be seen but on my private property.  She has hit it twice, and still hasn't made the connection.  I guess she isn't just evil, but stupid as well.

Jeff, thanks for the snake comment ;D they are my favorite, even the poison ones, blessings to you for that.

[Magicman]

I hate to hit anything.  I made a quick trip to the Cabin yesterday and a squirrel darted one way and then the other.   :-\  I got him with the front and rear wheels.

[drobertson]

there is one section on our rural state road heading into town that always has road kills, consistantly squirrels and skunks, right in front of a friends house, all the time, all year long, over and over again. can't figure why it is always in front of his house ???

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

I hate to hit anything.  I made a quick trip to the Cabin yesterday and a squirrel darted one way and then the other.   :-\  I got him with the front and rear wheels.

Squirrels will NOT get out of the way.  You have to be careful dodging squirrels.....you may tear up another mailbox.  ;D

[Jay C. White Cloud]

Hi David,

Critters crossing the road in the same spot, (even turtles,) is natural.  It is part of several elements in their ethology.  One is "site specific behaviors." The little fellows, of all different ilk, all seem to have chronic OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder.)  If you learn the what's and why's behind it, you can even run a trap line with out bait/cent and be successful.

Another element, is many of our four legged friends have myopic vision, and use their "sniffers," more than their eyes.  So where one goes, so does the rest.

Regards,  jay

[Onthesauk]

In the Las Vegas paper this morning:

  http://www.lvrj.com/news/boulder-city-bypass-project-protects-tortoises-188637191.html

[Jay C. White Cloud]

Awesome... 8)

[pappy19]

Reminds me of the dude that swerved to miss a kid and fell off the bed.

Pap

[Jay C. White Cloud]

I did that, but it was a tree.... :D

[chain]

After further research, I've found turtle soup and turtle eggs are used in some cultures as an aphrodisiac.

[Jay C. White Cloud]

Hi Chain,

I'm going back to the 70's but the statistics from WWF and Fish and Wildlife both show that many of those Turtles, Testudines are headed to the market, particularly Asian.  The demand is that high, that some of these folks will kill you over it.  I've lost friends, and, when I was more "involved", would at least twice a year, have some kind of altercation.  Nasty pieces of work, that lot.

One of the first things you learn in wildlife enforcement or wildlife undercover work, is you are dealing with killers.  It is eight times more dangerous than the drug trade, and we all know what it is like with Mexican Drug cartels.  When I was a "rookie," it just didn't make since to me, why more dangerous.  I got set strait.  I was told, "You are trying to catch somebody, that probably also runs drugs, as much as, wildlife, the difference; they can shoot you from a long way away or up close and personal, it makes no difference to them, they kill every day.  To make it worse, they are disposal experts.  The can make an 800 lb corps disappear in less than an hours, with know trace, that's what they do, and that is way worse than any other criminal organization. Your skinny body would be gone in under 20 minutes, never to be seen again...no body-no crime."

I still look over my shoulders in some parts of the country, just because I know what "wee-beasties," are prized finds in those areas.

[chain]

..and Hello to you Jay......by coincidence, there will be a documentary on Discovery at 7:00 p.m.[central] this evening entitled, "Extreme Smuggling", the trafficking of exotic and endangered wildlife and the investigative work used to combat against it.