Sunday, September 5, 2010
I was walking back to the car and just happened to notice this little guy on the stone dust path... a baby snapping turtle, slightly larger than a quarter.
After determining that he was indeed alive, I thought about it for a few moments... on the one hand I probably shouldn't interfere with wildlife, but on the other... he was a heck of a long way from any reliable source of water and actually pretty lucky no one had stepped on him... it was only chance that I noticed him. So... decision made. I interfered.
And carried him over to the dock on the Seneca River/Cayuga-Seneca Canal, where I placed him on a sunny rock right at the edge of the water. Where he stayed for a few minutes until...
... he all but shot into the water (and perhaps thought "crap, that's cold!") and paddled around a bit while seeming to check out some floating bits as possible food.
Should I have left him where he was and let him survive or perish on his own, ie. let nature take it's proper course? Yup. After all it's not like he was in the road and going to be run over by a car or something, and he clearly got to where he was under his own power. But obviously I feel better about having done it this way... and walking back from the dock I got to see several butterflies that I wouldn't have seen otherwise. And who knows, maybe this little guy is destined to grow up to become Gamera and save the world... or at least be a friend to children everywhere.
(Gamera © Daiei/Kadokawa Shoten Pictures Inc.)
OK, probably not.
JMH
