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Turtles: Oddities & Forteana (General; Miscellaneous)

Mike_Pratt33

Gone But Not Forgotten
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(Copied from the FT 181 thread)

I thought you might like to see a picture of the stuffed Hanoi Turtle mentioned in this issue. Unfortunatly I didn't see the live creature.

Apparently there was an image posted in or with this post, and it's gone MIA. Here is a substitute photo of the preserved turtle that would have been the only one displayed at Ngoc Son Temple in Hanoi as of the date of this posting.

DSCN1725.jpg

NOTE: This Temple is at the "Lake of the Returned Sword." For more info on the legend surrounding the lake and a turtle see:

Vietnamese King Arthur
https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/vietnamese-king-arthur.11820/

See Also:
Hoan Kiem Turtle
https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/hoan-kiem-turtle.58849/
 
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Mike P said:
I thought you might like to see a picture of the stuffed Hanoi Turtle mentioned in this issue. Unfortunatly I didn't see the live creature.
With respect, that is one big f**king turtle! Is there no way they could find a similar genus of turtle and introduce it to the lake? It's knowing the lake contains the final, lone example of a creature ... but doing nothing to preserve it's gene-pool. Even allowing smaller breeds into the area .. might they interbreed and keep the legend going?
 
I'm increasingly suspicious of Pravda reports but they are fascinating:

Mysterious Footprints Appear Again

02/20/2004 13:11

Is it possible that huge sea turtles can live thousands of kilometers from the sea?

A member of the Kosmopoisk research organization reported investigation of Turtle Lake after he returned from a trip about Mongolia at the beginning of 2004. Old legends and contemporary witnesses state that lines of footprints left by some big animal appear on the legendary lake shores once a year, at the end of summer as a rule. The footprints resemble those of a turtle, but really huge ones: some footprints are 1 meter wide (ordinary turtles have footprints 30-40 centimeters wide). Biologists say that turtles of this huge size do not exist on land at all. Is it possible that huge sea turtles can live thousands of kilometers from the sea? Remoteness of the steppe lake does not allow determining to what creatures the footprints may belong.

Soviet biologists described the strange footprints of huge turtles for the first time in the 1980s. Though many people chanced to see lots of fresh turtle footprints in the mornings, nobody has ever noticed the lake creatures. It was planned to have night vigils with night vision equipment, but the breakup of the Soviet Union frustrated the plans. Now, in about twenty years, Kosmopoisk has confirmed the turtle footprints issue is not yet investigated. So, biologists are highly likely to further investigate the mysterious huge footprints.

http://english.pravda.ru/science/19/94/377/12106_turtle.html
 
All you wanted to know about turtle sex

Wet and wild
Scientists: Sea turtles have racing libidos

By VIRGINIA SMITH
Staff Writer
Last update: 26 June 2004


In the annals of the Chelonian Research Institute in Oviedo is a photograph that, Peter C.H. Pritchard says, proves that female sea turtles "like it."

"You see here," said the famed turtle expert, pointing at an azure seascape with two green turtles in flagrante delicto, "the female is at the bottom -- her flippers are free. Look what she's doing -- hanging onto his head!"

Sure enough, she was. Whether it was to keep him firmly in place, as Pritchard believes, or to headlock and hurl him back where he came from, may never be known.

Such are the mysteries of sea turtle sex.

While there is enough data on sea turtle nesting habits to fill a warehouse or two, sea turtle mating habits are another story. Though turtles tend to mate close to their nesting beaches, biologists who've seen hundreds of female turtles nesting, and thousands of babies emerging, seldom witness "the act" itself.

In area waters, the loggerheads have been at it like rabbits since spring, but "the only way for someone to really see it is to spend time within a mile offshore all summer long," said Jane Provancha, a biologist with Dynamac Corp. in Melbourne. (Provancha, in her 22 years studying marine turtles, has yet to catch them copulating.)

Yet while formal studies of sea turtle sex are scant, gossip and anecdotes abound among scientists: Leatherbacks like foreplay. Female greens are promiscuous. Male loggerheads mount scuba divers, and each other.

And year after year, the accounts increase, creating a patchwork of knowledge about sea turtle sex that, if not exactly comprehensive, at least confirms that they do "like it."

A lot.

· · ·

"Male sea turtles are hornier than hell," said John Musick, a biologist at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. In the height of the breeding season (about a month before females come ashore) they will mount "just about anything," he said.

Pritchard said fishermen worldwide have long figured this out, and have historically used decoys to catch male sea turtles.

Any object "that's broadly oval and moving through the water" will do the trick, he said, holding a carved-wood "female" that looked more like a UFO.

Of course, other male turtles are also broadly oval and moving through the water. And if they're already hooked up with a female, all the better -- the second male will just pile on, sometimes nipping and slashing at the male below him. Leaving the female to cart around the whole ornery threesome, which can weigh well upward of a thousand pounds.

Pritchard had a photograph of that, too: a stack of green turtles, somewhere off the coast of Australia. The female would have a hard time surfacing to breathe, he explained, because of all the weight, and with the males' flippers occupied in securing her, she'd be the only one able to swim. After many such matings, her shell might be scarred to the bone from their claws.

But is she liking it? Who's to say?

A scuba diver in the Keys definitely did not like it when he was mounted by a male loggerhead in the mid-1990s, said Sue Schaf, administrator of the Turtle Hospital in Marathon. "Believe me," she said, "when male turtles are horny it doesn't matter."

She felt sorry for the victim of the attempted rape, who was not only shaken up by the experience but mocked publicly afterward. "It became quite the joke," Schaf said. "A lot of people for Halloween dressed like scuba divers with stuffed turtles mounted on their backs."

Much of the hard data on sea turtle sex comes from the Cayman Islands Turtle Farm, which began breeding green turtles in the 1970s.

Female green turtles, farm researchers discovered, mate multiple times, and have more than one father per clutch of eggs. But they made special note of female No. B100, who was "observed to mate 28 times in 12 days with six different males for periods between one and 13 hours," then laid a whopping 994 eggs for the season.

Researchers also noticed what later researchers dubbed "scramble polygamy" among male sea turtles. Instead of battling each other or defending a territory, they used speed and persistence to get girls. Even if it meant waiting for the male just below them to finish.

Moreover, the turtle farm found, turtle couples wouldn't mate without other males around to compete with. So with thousands of scrambling males and females like B100, things could get orgiastic in the turtle farm's breeding pools. It's no wonder the farm turned, in the 1980s, to semen extraction and artificial insemination.

The male turtles, apparently, liked it.

The process, as described in one report, sounded a bit harsh: A male would be lifted out of the water and tied to a metal rack with ropes before being stimulated, electrically, to ejaculate.

Sometimes it took the electric prod to cause a response. But "in some instances," the researchers wrote, "the penis would be extended as the male was secured to the rack."

· · ·

"Have you seen my turtle penises?" asked Pritchard, grabbing some jars off a cabinet.

Floating in one was a white, fleshy, arrow-shaped, somewhat flattened-looking member about 6 inches long with a groove down the middle.

It came from a hawksbill turtle in Guyana that, Pritchard explained, was dead more than a month before Pritchard got to it. By which time most of the turtle was skeletonized. But the penis, weirdly, was intact, "somehow immune to decomposition," tucked under the tailbones of the turtle.

· · ·

Given the kinky habits of greens and loggerheads (and Kemp's ridleys too -- the males bite like mad, according to turtle farm reports), it may be a relief to some that there's one species out there that's not only gentle, but practically monogamous.

National Geographic scientists have stuck small cameras, called "crittercams," to the backs of Costa Rican leatherbacks, allowing a rather up-close and personal view of their mating activity. They have no claws, so males hug, rather than clamp, the female.

Greg Marshall, an executive producer at National Geographic, said tremendous things have been learned from the leatherback pornography.

First, he said, no one realized how close to shore the males come in during the breeding season -- putting them in as much danger from fishing boats as females. Second, Marshall said, neither sex seems to eat at all during mating season.

But most surprisingly, he said, the females continue to "see" males even between nestings. They may avoid them, and head to shallow waters to run away from them, he said, but they're still interacting with them.

The scientists also found that nearly 99 percent of eggs in a leatherback nest are fertilized by the same male.

So if greens are sluts, leatherbacks are, well, teases. It's just how they happen to like it.

news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/Headlines/03NewsHEAD02TURT062604.htm
Link is dead. No archived version found.
 
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Scientists: Sea turtles have racing libidos

This article article is pathetically anthropomorphic. We can't apply human standards to turtles.

Calling them 'promiscuous', 'horny', 'sluts' and 'teases' tells us a lot more about the mindsets of the scientists and writer than about the turtles.
 
Looks more like a donkey:

Turtle that survived fire has image of Satan, owner says

Associated Press
Mar. 18, 2005 11:20 AM

MICHIGANTOWN, Ind. - Could it be... Satan?

An Indiana pet shop owner says a turtle that was the only animal to survive an October fire has developed an image of Satan's face on its shell.

Bryan Dora says it looks like the devil wants us to know that he was there.

Dora says he can see a goatee and a pair of pointy horns on the shell of the palm-sized red-eared slider turtle named Lucky.

He says Lucky is healthy and its behavior hasn't changed.

Investigators could not determine the cause of the fire, which destroyed the A-Dorable Pet Shop and several other businesses in Frankfort, about 40 miles northwest of Indianapolis.

Dora has produced a DVD of the turtle's story that he plans to auction on the Internet. He will also offer the winning bidder the chance to buy Lucky off-line.

Source
 
'Satanic' turtle survives inferno
(i suspect the mods will reallocate this somewhere)

Monday, 21 March, 2005, 18:57 GMT

'Satanic' turtle survives inferno

The Doras have called Lucky their "miracle turtle"
A turtle who survived a fierce fire that killed 150 other animals at a US pet shop now sports the face of the devil, according to the shop owners.

They say the intense heat of the fire revealed distinctly Satanic eyes, lips, goatee and pointed devil horns on the shell of the creature, now named Lucky. Lucky lost two tank mates in the pet shop fire, but he, somehow, came through the ordeal unscathed.

Owners Bryan and Marsha Dora plan to sell Lucky to the highest bidder.

The couple saw their exotic pet business gutted by the fire and most of their animals killed.

After discovering Lucky's markings, Mr Dora became convinced their turtle was not alone that night.

'Miracle turtle'

"The marking on the shell was like the devil wanted us to know he was down there," he told the Frankfort Times newspaper, Indiana.

Regardless of the cause, I feel the devil was present
Bryan Dora
Pet shop owner
"To me, it's too coincidental that the only thing to come out unscathed would have this image on it."

Mr Dora and his wife believe it was the heat of the fire which may have caused Lucky's shell to change colour, revealing the new markings.

Although suspicious of how the palm-sized, red-eared slider turtle survived when all those around him perished, the Doras now call him their "miracle turtle".

In a bid to use his story to help rebuild their shattered business, Bryan Dora produced a DVD, called "The Pet Shop Story of Lucky the Turtle", which he plans to auction on eBay.

Unable to sell Lucky because of eBay rules against selling live animals, Mr Dora plans to offer the turtle to the highest bidder in an off-line sale.

It is unclear to what extent Lucky's Satanist credentials will enhance his sale value.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4369517.stm

Bryan Dora not to be confused with Dora Bryan

eg
http://www.shorehillarts.co.uk/Main_Index/Dora_Bryan/dora_bryan.html

mal
 
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Iowa Woman Finds Dead Turtle in Coffee

Iowa Woman Finds Dead Turtle in Coffee
Thu Nov 10, 9:54 PM ET



Marjorie Morris just wanted to pour coffee into a canister. What she found in the package of freeze-dried coffee left her shell-shocked.

Morris, 77, of Ainsworth, found a dead baby turtle in the 2-pound package of Folgers coffee last Sunday.

"I thought it was a toy at first," said Morris, 77, of Ainsworth.

Morris said she had been making coffee from the same package for a month before she made the discovery.

"It's a responsibility of the company to check their shipments closer," she said. "It could be much more serious."

Morris said she doesn't plan to file a lawsuit against Folgers.

She said a customer service representative for the company dismissed the find, explaining that because many Folgers plants are based in New Orleans the turtle might have ended up in the coffee as a result of Hurricane Katrina.

Sussane Dussing, a spokeswoman for Procter & Gamble, the company that owns the Folgers brand, said it's too early to say how the turtle ended up in the coffee.

Dussing said she wasn't aware of other similar incidents and that Morris' discovery would be investigated.

Morris, who has kept the turtle, said she would continue to drink coffee, but that she is now a more mindful consumer.

Things could have been worse, she said.

"It could've been a snake."

___

Information from: Iowa City Press-Citizen,
http://www.press-citizen.com/
 
The species in question never existed in the first place.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/04/130404072916.htm

"The turtle species Pelusios seychellensis regarded hitherto as extinct never existed. Scientists at the Senckenberg Research Institute in Dresden discovered this based on genetic evidence. The relevant study was published today in the journal PLOS ONE."
 
A rare golden turtle (so colored as a result of leucism) has been discovered, lauded and set free in Nepal.

GoldenTurtle.jpg

Vish - Who?

A turtle 'revered as an incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu' is spotted in Nepal with a dazzling golden shell due to an ultra-rare genetic mutation

A dazzling gold turtle has been discovered in Nepal and has been compared to the mythological incarnation of the Hindu deity Vishnu.

The creature gets its unique colouration from an ultra-rare genetic mutation that alters its pigmentation.

It is believed to be only the fifth time a golden turtle of the species Lissemys punctata andersoni has been spotted worldwide, and the first time ever in Nepal. ...

Kamal Devkota, a reptile expert who documented the find, said the reptile had a deep spiritual significance. ...

'Not only golden animals but turtles overall have significant religious and cultural value in Nepal,' he said.

'It is believed that Lord Vishnu took the form of a turtle to save the universe from destruction in his incarnation. ...

The golden turtle owes its remarkable colour to chromatic leucism — a condition characterised by a loss of colour pigmentation.

Leucism usually results in white, pale or patchy skin, but in this case it lead to xanthophores — cells abundant with yellow pigments — becoming dominant. ...

After being documented, the turtle was released into the wild, though survival will be harder for it than for other turtles.

'Colour aberrations are quite rare in nature because the affected individuals may be disadvantaged in their environment,' said Mr Devkota. ...

FULL STORY: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/science...ltra-rare-genetic-mutation-spotted-Nepal.html
 
I've always thought this fellow was something of an oddity. Charming, but an oddity. I spent quite a while communing with this individual in, of all places, the KL butterfly garden. Cheladonia longcollis, aka the long-necked turtle, imaginatively enough.

SmartSelect_20200820-221202_Photos.jpg

SmartSelect_20200820-221239_Photos.jpg
 
A rare golden turtle (so colored as a result of leucism) has been discovered, lauded and set free in Nepal. ...

Another golden flapshell turtle has turned up in India, and it seems this golden color aberration isn't quite so rare as previously believed.
What's The Deal With This Ridiculous Yellow Turtle Found in India?

For the second time in just three months the Indian Forest Service has announced the discovery of a golden flapshell turtle.

Like a slice of cheese, a slab of butter, or the yolk of an egg, this zesty creature with its vivid yellow shell, head, and limbs looks good enough to eat - and has fast become an internet sensation. ...

While such aberrations of colour are rare in nature, this bizarre phenomenon is more common than many recognise.

Yellow variants of the Indian flapshell turtle (Lissemys punctata) ... have been discovered a handful of times over the years in various parts of South Asia ...

In 1997, a turtle with a uniformly yellow body and pink eyes was discovered in Gujarat on the west coast of India, and other similar examples are said to have been found in Myanmar and Bangladesh, although the data are unpublished.

Just this summer, a golden turtle was snapped in Odisha, an eastern Indian state, and when posted on Twitter, a wildlife biologist in India claimed to have found three such individuals the year before.

Even more recently, a paper was published on the first discovery of a golden flapshell found in Nepal. ...

FULL STORY: https://www.sciencealert.com/what-s-the-deal-with-this-ridiculous-golden-turtle-found-in-india
 
Yea!!!! 'Mon the wee turtles! :twothumbs:

Tens of thousands of turtles head for the Amazon

Source: BBC News
Date: 16 December, 2020

Take a look at these amazing pictures of tens of thousands of baby turtles hatching and heading for the Amazon River in Brazil.

These Giant South American River turtles emerged at a protected beach on the smaller Purus River, which feeds into the Amazon, where experts have been protecting them from poachers in special pens - more than 70 thousand hatched on one day alone!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/55315236
 
I don’t know how big North American snapping turtles are supposed to get, but I suspect it is bigger than most people think. I have seen turtle slides in swamps which were at least 18 inches wide. This was in Cypress Creek National Wildlife Refuge in southern Illinois. At least I hope these were turtle slides and not some cold weather aberration of an alligator! I have also seen a very large snapping turtle in a lake in Quebec, 1000 miles north of its typical range. I was in a canoe and was able to get within 5 feet of it, so I am quite sure of what I saw.

A snapping turtle story: years ago, my husband and I were returning from a hike and were on a dirt path about 20 feet from a lake in Southern Indiana. Unexpectedly, we came across a snapping turtle on the path. It was about 12-14 inches wide. We were so surprised. My husband’s male hind-brain kicked into gear and he found a stick and advanced upon the turtle. I warned him! As I begged him to not approach the killer behemoth – especially from the front – he told me to “relax.” I retreated to avoid the bloodbath. My husband slowed down, got within a few feet, and then squatted down in front of the turtle. In all this time, the turtle had not moved. Encouraged, my husband then gently tapped the turtle on its back. The turtle still didn’t move. So, my husband then tapped it harder.

The turtle charged my husband faster than a quick walking pace, neck extended and mouth open. My husband screamed, shot in the air backwards, and ran for his life. It actually was a very close call. After I finished laughing, I told him I would remind him of this in the future, on a regular basis. And I have.
 
I don’t know how big North American snapping turtles are supposed to get, but I suspect it is bigger than most people think. I have seen turtle slides in swamps which were at least 18 inches wide. This was in Cypress Creek National Wildlife Refuge in southern Illinois. At least I hope these were turtle slides and not some cold weather aberration of an alligator! I have also seen a very large snapping turtle in a lake in Quebec, 1000 miles north of its typical range. I was in a canoe and was able to get within 5 feet of it, so I am quite sure of what I saw.

A snapping turtle story: years ago, my husband and I were returning from a hike and were on a dirt path about 20 feet from a lake in Southern Indiana. Unexpectedly, we came across a snapping turtle on the path. It was about 12-14 inches wide. We were so surprised. My husband’s male hind-brain kicked into gear and he found a stick and advanced upon the turtle. I warned him! As I begged him to not approach the killer behemoth – especially from the front – he told me to “relax.” I retreated to avoid the bloodbath. My husband slowed down, got within a few feet, and then squatted down in front of the turtle. In all this time, the turtle had not moved. Encouraged, my husband then gently tapped the turtle on its back. The turtle still didn’t move. So, my husband then tapped it harder.

The turtle charged my husband faster than a quick walking pace, neck extended and mouth open. My husband screamed, shot in the air backwards, and ran for his life. It actually was a very close call. After I finished laughing, I told him I would remind him of this in the future, on a regular basis. And I have.
Alligator snapping turtles have been recorded at over 200 lbs, here are a couple of whoppers

44528adc103c007afa49e18516b84575--baby-turtles-sea-turtles.jpg


 
Alligator snapping turtles have been recorded at over 200 lbs, here are a couple of whoppers

View attachment 40414

!!! Those are whoppers and much bigger than any I have seen in the wild. I have seen one about the size of the one in the top photo. It was in the Chicago Shedd Aquarium, in its own tank, underwater. Its eyes would track the visitors on the other side of the glass.
 
I don’t know how big North American snapping turtles are supposed to get, but I suspect it is bigger than most people think. I have seen turtle slides in swamps which were at least 18 inches wide. This was in Cypress Creek National Wildlife Refuge in southern Illinois. At least I hope these were turtle slides and not some cold weather aberration of an alligator! I have also seen a very large snapping turtle in a lake in Quebec, 1000 miles north of its typical range. I was in a canoe and was able to get within 5 feet of it, so I am quite sure of what I saw.

A snapping turtle story: years ago, my husband and I were returning from a hike and were on a dirt path about 20 feet from a lake in Southern Indiana. Unexpectedly, we came across a snapping turtle on the path. It was about 12-14 inches wide. We were so surprised. My husband’s male hind-brain kicked into gear and he found a stick and advanced upon the turtle. I warned him! As I begged him to not approach the killer behemoth – especially from the front – he told me to “relax.” I retreated to avoid the bloodbath. My husband slowed down, got within a few feet, and then squatted down in front of the turtle. In all this time, the turtle had not moved. Encouraged, my husband then gently tapped the turtle on its back. The turtle still didn’t move. So, my husband then tapped it harder.

The turtle charged my husband faster than a quick walking pace, neck extended and mouth open. My husband screamed, shot in the air backwards, and ran for his life. It actually was a very close call. After I finished laughing, I told him I would remind him of this in the future, on a regular basis. And I have.
Yes. Snappers have nasty dispositions. Beware anyone who comes upon one on land and thinks it's only a rock! I grew up on a farm which had a pond and occasionally we would see a snapper a ways from the pond, crossing a dirt area (from tractor and machinery tracks). They are big grey lumps and until you are fairly close to actually see it, it is difficult to distinguish from clods of dirt. They are very quick moving and will chase you if you get too close.
 
Yes. Snappers have nasty dispositions. Beware anyone who comes upon one on land and thinks it's only a rock! I grew up on a farm which had a pond and occasionally we would see a snapper a ways from the pond, crossing a dirt area (from tractor and machinery tracks). They are big grey lumps and until you are fairly close to actually see it, it is difficult to distinguish from clods of dirt. They are very quick moving and will chase you if you get too close.
They can easily shear your finger off too
 
Passengers shell-shocked at delay.

Turtles on a Runway probably will never rival Snakes on a Plane for dramatic effect, but one reptile has made headlines after an innocent amble along the tarmac at Japan’s second-busiest airport, delaying five planes.

The turtle, which weighs just over 2kg, was seen moving slowly along the tarmac at Narita international airport near Tokyo on Friday morning, prompting a pilot preparing for takeoff to contact air traffic control. Staff removed the animal with a net and checked the 4,000-metre runway for other foreign objects, causing a 15-minute delay to five flights, according to the Mainichi Shimbun. They included an All-Nippon Airways Airbus A380 whose fuselage is decorated with light and dark blue images of sea turtles, an embellishment that debuted in July last year to celebrate the carrier’s service to Hawaii, where the animals are regarded as sacred.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...g-reptile-delays-five-planes-at-japan-airport
 
May have been caught in nets.

At least 300 sea turtles have washed up dead on Mexico's Pacific coast.

Preliminary exams suggests that the olive ridley turtles (Lepidochelys olivacea) drowned, an official with Mexico's environment ministry said. The official said they had probably become tangled in illegal fishing nets in the high seas or in abandoned nets known as "ghost nets".

Olive ridley turtles are listed as vulnerable by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The IUCN says that their population is decreasing and that they are listed as vulnerable because they only nest in a small number of places.

The turtles were found washed up on Morro Ayuta beach in Oaxaca, on Mexico's western coast. The beach is one of the sites where olive ridley turtles come to lay their eggs.

All of the dead animals were females, turtle expert Ernesto Albavera Padilla told local media.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-59077086
 
Mass stabbing of turtles.

At least 30 green sea turtles have been found dead off a beach of a remote Japanese island, with many having been stabbed in the neck.

Locals on Kumejima island made the discovery last Thursday, after a low tide revealed the bodies.

At least one fishing operator admitted to wounding the animals to remove them from fishing nets, said news site the Mainichi.
Police are investigating animal cruelty claims.

"I disentangled some of the [turtles] and released them into the sea, but I couldn't free [the] heavy ones so I stabbed them to get rid of them," an unnamed fishing operator told a close source, said a report by the Mainichi.

Local media reported police had deployed officers to the scene last week, but it's not clear if any action has been taken.

Green sea turtles are listed as an endangered species by Japanese authorities and global conservation groups. They're known to frequent the seaweed and kelp beds off Kumejima - one of the tiny islands about 2,000km south of the Japanese mainland - where there are also active conservation efforts.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-62202902
 
Mass stabbing of turtles.

At least 30 green sea turtles have been found dead off a beach of a remote Japanese island, with many having been stabbed in the neck.

Locals on Kumejima island made the discovery last Thursday, after a low tide revealed the bodies.

At least one fishing operator admitted to wounding the animals to remove them from fishing nets, said news site the Mainichi.
Police are investigating animal cruelty claims.

"I disentangled some of the [turtles] and released them into the sea, but I couldn't free [the] heavy ones so I stabbed them to get rid of them," an unnamed fishing operator told a close source, said a report by the Mainichi.

Local media reported police had deployed officers to the scene last week, but it's not clear if any action has been taken.

Green sea turtles are listed as an endangered species by Japanese authorities and global conservation groups. They're known to frequent the seaweed and kelp beds off Kumejima - one of the tiny islands about 2,000km south of the Japanese mainland - where there are also active conservation efforts.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-62202902
Hopefully they charge him for this. The sad thing is, those sea turtles can't be replaced.
 
View attachment 57884

Everybody's looking for her up here. Like many another elderly lady, she's gotten lost several times & turned up in strange spots.
Hopefully not roadkill or taken by someone..
Now your avatar makes sense to me. Are you situated around Lake Huron? The 705 area code twigged it for me.
 
Darkest Toronto.
"That is to say, Nowhere."
But formerly Huron territory.

Grace the Snapper lives a bit north in cottage country near Minden, Ont.
 
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Mysterious "spacer" eggs (non-viable egg objects) have been found in loggerhead turtle nests for the first time. Even though these "spacer eggs" have been found in other turtle species' nests, researchers still don't know what they represent.
'Mystery' eggs found in loggerhead turtle nests in North Carolina

Researchers in North Carolina said they are trying to determine the purpose of "mystery" eggs found in several loggerhead turtle nests.

The Cape Hatteras National Seashore Park Service said in an Instagram post that researchers found numerous so-called "spacer" eggs among the normal eggs in several loggerhead turtle nests along the North Carolina coast. ...

The spacer eggs are smaller than the turtles' normal eggs and bear an unusual shape. The eggs lack a yolk and do not hatch into baby turtles ...

Spacer eggs are common in leatherback turtle nests, but it is not common to find them in loggerhead nests ...

"Even though the name spacer egg hints to a space filling function, the purpose of these eggs are still a mystery," parks officials wrote. "They might prevent sand from falling into the nest cavity, they may satisfy a predator that would otherwise eat viable eggs, or they may simply be a mistake in the egg-making process."
FULL STORY: https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2022/0...rolina-loggerhead-turtle-nests/3251662574716/
 
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