SUN HERALD (Attleboro, Massachusetts) 03 October 06 Saving Squirt (Susan LaHoud)
Photo at URL: Squirt, a baby snapping turtle that found its way onto Jefferson Street in Attleboro, is help up by a neighborhood child. (Staff photo by Tom Maguire)
Attleboro: This is the tale of a tiny turtle.
Actually, it's a tale of a tiny turtle's trek to the Ten Mile River, via Jefferson Street.
And it's a timely tale, says Sarah Slack, director of Massachusetts Audubon Society's Oak Knoll Wildlife Sanctuary. "It's normal for them to be headed to the water this time of year to hibernate in the mud," she said.
A twist in this turtle tale is how it turned up in a big city neighborhood (at least in tiny turtle terms), wedged alongside a concrete berm, along a busy street, with no large water source in immediate sight.
Theories of where the turtle, smaller than a golfball, had come from and where it might be headed were narrowed to three:
It took a wrong turn.
Someone picked it up walking past Highland Country Club, which turtles are believed to have crossed to get to the Sweet Forest near the high school.
Or, Slack suggested, it might have been transported by a predator, like a raccoon or oppossum, and dropped after they figured it wasn't worth the trouble to munch on a baby snapping turtle. After all, they can still snap, even at that early age, she said.
As the story goes, a girl found the turtle on Jefferson and gave it to Rory McCarthy, 6, who along with his sister Emma, 8, attends Willett Elementary School. But this soon became a family enterprise involving older siblings Tyler, 11 and Brittany, 14, who are Brennan Middle School students.
The turtle was the talk of the neighborhood among the children and created a tad of tension. A 9-year-old neighbor told Tyler, "You can't keep that! It's illegal."
"It is?" said a tentative Tyler.
It is, Slack confirmed in a telephone interview the next day. It is illegal to keep or collect wildlife without a special permit through the Massachusetts Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, she said. "Plus, it has a negative effect on the turtle population."
While highly unlikely that law enforcement officials would show up at the door for a baby snapping turtle, often people don't know what they're getting into when they decide to keep wildlife as pets, Slack said.
She said even Oak Knoll staff didn't know what they were getting into when they accepted some turtles from a rescue society that had taken in too many turtles from people who didn't want them anymore.
Unable to be released in the wild after being in captivity for so long, staff must feed them every day and clean out the tanks. Then, they need special lights so that their shells stay healthy. One won't even eat unless it's hand-fed by tweezers, Slack said.
And, she said, consider this: "A turtle will live a minimum of 47 years."
Brittany said the tiny turtle caught on Jefferson Street, which the neighborhood children eventually named Squirt, didn't seem to like the worms her younger siblings dug up.
She researched the turtle - a snapper distinguished by its long tail and pointy face - its diet and habitat on the Internet. "It said they would eat crickets and blood worms, but blood worms carry germs - so no way!"
Brittany also created an environment for the turtle. It was digging in the mud and with the cooler nights, starting to slow, well, to a crawl.
It was time to follow nature's course, the trek the turtle was supposed to take to the Ten Mile.
"I just want to keep him a couple more days," Tyler confessed.
When contacted, Slack advised feeding the turtle to help settle it in, putting it on a small slope leading to the water, without obstacles like rocks to impede its trail and keeping it away from well-trodden paths and predators.
The turtle should be fine in any water body, she assured.
Heading out to Sandy Point, tiny turtle in bucket, Emma asked if they could say goodbye.
Placed at the shore, the tiny turtle at first turned around and headed back for the group that had gathered. "I think he likes us!" Emma said.
Tyler took it to the tip of the water's edge. It took to the water like a fish. Assigning a human quality to animals is often done erroneously. But the tiny turtle looked relieved, zipping over the algae, near a submerged limb. It poked its head above the water a short time after.
"Goodbye Squirt," Emma said.
It was time for the humans to head home.
Asked how they felt, Emma said: "I'm a little sad."
"Why are you sad?" Tyler asked.
"He was sooooo cute," she replied.
But they had put the tiny turtle back on track.
Saving Squirt