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I have a question: Was it a gravid female? I just wondered, I saw many many turtles dead trying to cross the road and happened to be able to help this one. I figured it was either a male looking for the ladies or a gravid female.

>>I have a question: Was it a gravid female? I just wondered, I saw many many turtles dead trying to cross the road and happened to be able to help this one. I figured it was either a male looking for the ladies or a gravid female.

It is obviously hard to tell without seeng the turtle but I would be willing to bet it was a female either heading to or from a nesting area.
I live in Tennessee also and during this time of year, see a lot of snappers and other aquatic species dead on the roads near water. Most of which are probably heading to or from nesting spots.
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Jimmy (draybar)

Cool! About it being a probable female, not about all of the dead ones. I had tried to rescue another one earlier and a car hit it right in front of me - obviously because I was standing there in the median about to get it. People can be so mean.

I also have a funny story. A friend of mine was going to a business meeting dressed appropriately when she came upon a big old snapper trying to cross the road. She stopped and went over to him. His back was covered in moss and he just looked... old. He was pretty big! Anyway she tried to pick him up and he stuck his neck out and tried to bite her. She dropped him and looked up to see an 18 wheeler coming. So she kicked his shell and scooted him across the road, in her dress shoes. I would have loved to see a video of her all dressed up scooting this big ol' snapper across a road! Well, he made it.

I used my kayak paddle to pick up "my" snapper and I carried her across the road like a pizza getting taken out of a pizza oven. She was wonderful! She bit my paddle a couple of times and I thought she might hold on but of course she did not. Wish I had a picture of her.

JUDY

I also have a funny story although my wife might debate it. We found a large snapper crossing the road and couldn't see any water nearby. I had a cardboard box in my car so into the box went the snapper. I placed the box on my wifes lap and we drove off looking for a good place to release the turtle. Well it wasn't too long before my wife mentioned that the bottom of the box was damp and couldn't I hurry to a release site. Apparantly the turtle had urinated in the box. The bottom and sides of the box became more saturated and it wasn't long before the turtle was pushing his legs through the sides. My wife was freaking out by this time as the turtle had not seemed too friendly when being placed into the box to begin with. By this time I was driving pretty fast with my wife screaming at me to pull over! Finally we found a pond, but it was quite an experience. I thought it was pretty funny but my wife thought otherwise! Luckily she didn't divorce me.

Great story! I had a turtle (not a snapper I think it was some sort of slider or cooter) which, when I picked it up to help it cross the road, began peeing like crazy. So I was stumbling across the road with this pissing turtle trying not to get run over.