Turtles on the roads

We all know that, sadly, we're displacing lots of animals with all this building. Fact of life. I've seen many turtles on Ridgeway and Claiborne and my husband and I stop to help them when we see them. In particular I pick them up and plop them in the yard of the person I see who is closest to a natural area, hoping the turtles will wander back to the undeveloped space.

I realize this is much better than letting them linger on the roadways, and possibly get run over, but is there something else, something better I should be doing? Someplace else I should take them or direct them?

 

All I know about turtles is that they can be territorial and that if you see them crossing the road you should help them out in the direction they are heading rather than the direction they cam from. They'll just try to cross again.

 

Because this is on the subject of turtles, I wanted to share some info I just learned after a neighbor had a snapping turtle on his property....

if one needs to move a snapping turtle, get it flipped on its back. Once it is on its back, you can then pick it up by its tail without fear of being bit and move it.

 

I saw one this weekend that was painted orange on it's shell. Does the marking have any significance?

 

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Hmm ... it didn't want to be mistaken for a turkey by hunter's this fall ??

Seriously, someone may have painted it so that it would be visible and/or is tracking its progress for a study.

 

Was the orange on top or on the underside of the turtle's shell? If I recall, there is a type of turtle referred to as "painted turtles" which do have colorful undersides.

 

This is the turtle I was referring to:

http://www.fcps.edu/StratfordLandingES/Ecology/mpages/eastern_painted_turtle.htm

 

no this turtle was painted on top of it's shell.

 

Yup ... it was worried about the turkey hunters ...

 

CAA,

We've seen those turtles quite a bit. One of my neighbors likes to pick them up and take them to the pond over by the nature center and let them go there. We oddly seem to get them in our yard a lot even though we are on the top of a hill. Cute little buggers. My dog hates them lol

 

I don't know a lot about turtles but they seem to be the most common imho... they are cute! My son & daughter-in-law had a pair and they were actually quite entertaining!