While pyramids, temples and cities have risen and fallen, while dinosaurs have ruled and been swept away and atomic bombs have shaken the earth, turtles have gone right on eating, swimming and lumbering about making baby turtles. You may have difficulty distinguishing between a salamander and a newt, or between a frog and a toad, but everyone knows a turtle on sight. If you have never really looked into the subject, though, chances are you are not aware of the amazing variety of these beasts we call turtles. They show up all over the globe, inhabiting the oceans, deserts, ponds, lakes and streams. They crawl through the litter of warm forests everywhere and burrow in the tepid mud beneath bogs you never even knew were there. Not only that, but their grasp on life is uncommonly tight. I have seen turtles with their shells cracked and organs hanging out from an encounter with a tire stepping friskily along and sniffing out berries. I have seen giants with shells worn so smooth they have doubtless seen a hundred summers more than I. There is nothing quite like the turtle.
You’ve seen turtles, you say. They are nothing new; let’s move onto something really exotic. Well, rid your mind of the image of the high-domed shell of the garden box turtle. Forget her red head and big brown eyes. Imagine an animal that weighs a hundred and fifty pounds and lurks at the bottom of a swiftly moving stream, waiting to exact his toll in careless ducks and curious fish. Or instead try to fathom the riddle of the green sea turtle, three feet long and capable of outrunning a ski boat using just two legs. Not only is she swift, she has a memory that puts the latest minicomputer to shame. She spends years cruising thousands of miles of tropical oceans, munching her way through myriad forests of kelp. Then nature calls her back not only to the same island on which she was born, but to the exact same strip of beach. Does she use the poles as internal compass headings, does she “taste” her way back or does she take her headings from the stars?
How about the soft-shelled turtles of the Nile and Ganges rivers, big flat creatures with no tough home on their back but a set of nails and jaws that more than make up for it in the protection department? How about the false map turtles with road routes on their shells, or the snake-necked, big-headed and snail-eating turtles?
If the charm of animals so unusual and ancient has not swayed you yet, I urge you to watch this section. I’m sure that if you feel up to the challenges of turtle keeping, these droll pets will repay you for years to come.
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