Turtle: Lost and Found
Yesterday, a summer storm flooded the turtles’ aquaterrarium and one of the turtles was missing. I looked everywhere in the backyard… but nothing. Even my german shorthaired pointer couldn’t find her (I think the turtle is a “she”). I thought that my dog could have eaten her… Finally, this morning she was found. She was very well hidden in here (click on all pictures to enlarge):
She was undamaged. Survived a one meter fall, the dog and the night (with all the predators out there). These are quite resistant creatures!
Here is a picture of her back to the aquaterrarium with her friend (I believe both are female, but I cannot tell for sure):
And here are more pictures of her in closeup, so that you may have a notion of her size:
Previous post about my Tigre D’Agua turtles here.
February 20, 2008 at 8:37 pm
She’s beautiful! (And tough.) Glad that she’s back.
February 21, 2008 at 8:24 am
Hi Carl,
The most amazing thing the turtle did was to have survived my dog, he’s a natural hunter. He hunts for birds, frogs, insects and whatever animal that enters his territory. He even points. I tried to find her first by myself with the dog locked out. Without success, I showed the other turtle to my dog, who sniffed her and went like crazy around his territory sniffing everything, but nothing. He got really tired looking for her! The night came, and my hunsband found her only in the next morning. She was very well hidden like a stone and was quite dry. But was fine. I believe she was the same turtle that escaped a small aquaterrarium that used to be over my son’s desk in his room when they were very small. I think they can resist a reasonable amount of height and are not so fragile. These creatures are here for many millions of years… They are adorable. And, for a reptile, they are intelligent enough.
Best,
Christine
February 21, 2008 at 10:26 pm
The part of the US where I grew up has lots of lizards, my favorite was the “collared lizard” or crotaphytus. They run on their hind legs, amazingly fast. My memory of them is that it typically required the organized pursuit of about 6 boys to catch one. We raced them against each other.
They hunt insects and small animals, and so, what with the running on hind legs, and the strong fierce look to their bite, they were the best we could do for minature predatory dinosaurs. I wish I had paid more attention to their appearance; they are quite pretty, in a desert sort of way (see link above).
They are available as pets but I would think they would prefer a very wide open region. And a lot of good hot sun.
February 22, 2008 at 3:23 pm
Beautiful!
There are many lizards around here, but I have never seen any that run on their hind legs, except on TV.
Here is a list of Brazilian reptiles in Wikipedia: link.
The most common lizard in my region is this, the “Teiú” Lizard: link. It’s beautiful, big.
Christine
Edit: Scientific name: Tupinambis merianae. Youtube link here.
February 22, 2008 at 10:59 pm
Teiú, is called in English, the “tegu” or “gold tegu”, and grows to over a meter long! And people keep them as pets!! They say don’t feed them from the hand or they will eventually bite you.
The nature of the desert is that life is sparse and this makes bipedal locomotion a particularly efficient method of transportation. I guess humans evolved in an environment of wide open spaces and this is why we also move that way.
Another 2-legged desert animal I recall from my youth is the road runner (link, with picture of one eating a poor lizard) which is the state bird of New Mexico and internationally famous from a cartoon (link). The road runner is the small US equivalent of Australia’s huge flightless birds, but is a type of cuckoo.
February 23, 2008 at 9:23 am
Yeah, that’s right. Here they are also kept as pets (I wouldn’t). I saw once one of those being fed in a pet shop. The seller simply took one of the hamsters from the pet shop and gave it to the lizard, and he swallowed it in one peace in front of the clients! He said the teiú actually ate only a hamster once every 15 days or so. The lizard is usually feed with some of those comercialized food for pets. I believe he could keep a reasonable population of hamsters in his pet shop with such a “procedure”…
And thanks for the road runner link. Talking about huge flightless birds, here is a link for the South American ema: link. Would they be related to the ostrich, since back in millions of years South America and Africa formed one continent? I don’t know, but I’d guess it seems likely.
Best,
Christine
Edit: My guess seems to be correct: link.
August 24, 2008 at 4:54 pm
[...] on these turtles here and [...]