Vist from some of my "Old Girls"

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Lately I have had my "old Girls" coming to visit. They are the old female turtles who come every year to lay eggs in my back yard. These ladies were born here when it was a field. Now it is a house, shop, and yard .. but they come anyway. I have 35–40-year-old snappers the size of a turkey platter, yellow eared/bellied sliders that are a good 30+ years old, and box turtles that may be near 50.
The yellow-eared slider below is a good 16" long. Look at her back to see that she is really old. They are slick and smooth most of their life, but wrinkle with great age.



The waterlilies were just starting to open to the sun, so I shot a photo of one half open.

 

[A.McPherson]

Nice!! Do they lay eggs every year too?

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Yes, but unless I spot where they dug the nest the raccoons dig them up. If I see the fresh dug dirt I put a metal cage over it to keep out the raccoons and other critters. Even then, the eggs are usually infertile because there are not enough males around anymore. In the past 20 years I have had only a few hatches. One year I dug up a nest of 20+ snapper eggs and put them in a box with sandy soil over them. I put it in the greenhouse at a nice even temperature. Not one egg ever hatched.
I did have a nest of box turtles hatch somewhere in the garden and spotted a bunch of half-dollar size box turtles heading out across the yard.

 

[fitzo]

Kudos to you for nurturing the turtles, Stacy. They’re disappearing and that’s got creepy implications for us.

Enjoyed the fotos. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Ken H>]

It's amazing how long turtles can live. When I was living in Louisiana a fellow worker told me about a turtle they had caught a few years in the past - big old snapping turtle. They found a broken flint arrow head in the shell. All grown over from the years. Here I was thinking what a shame to kill something that had lived that long to have a flint arrow head broken off into the shell, and that old Cajun was talking about how good it was to eat.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Few people know the difference between a Northern Zoo and a Southern Zoo.

In a Northern Zoo they have big cages with native habitat scenery and lots of exotic animals living in a semi-natural environment. There is a big sign telling the names of the animals in Latin and what people call them in English, and stuff about their habits. At the bottom of the sign, it has "DO NOT FEED THE ANIMALS"

In a Southern Zoo, they have big cages with native habitat scenery and lots of exotic animals living in a semi-natural environment. There is a big sign telling the names of the animals in Latin and what people call them in English, and stuff about their habits. At the bottom of the sign, it has a couple recipes.

 

[Ken H>]

At the bottom of the sign, it has a couple recipes.

I like that one. Reminds me of my 2nd wife who is Brasilian. I'm telling her about manatees, how big they are, where you find them, etc. She's listening closely. When I finish with my telling, first response out of her mouth was "How do you cook them"?

 

[Studio10Knives]

Stacy, that is really cool! I love reptiles, I have a Russian tortoise myself, should live to about 80. My son has a leopard gecko. It is awesome that you take care of the eggs you find.

Mert