She never expected that.
The other day, a woman in Long Island, New York, glanced at her garden and saw something she never expected. A large animal was peeking out from beneath the soil, his narrow brown head almost blending in with the sticks and leaves.
The surprising visitor was a snapping turtle. Perhaps he’d been searching for food or looking for a mate. Or maybe other turtles bullied him out of his old territory. Whatever the case, this turtle had ventured far from home and into the woman’s yard. Now he was lost, with nowhere to turn, hiding in the mulch.
Thankfully, the homeowner knew what to do. She called the Turtle Rescue of the Hamptons hotline. In no time, a volunteer rescuer named Karen was headed to the scene.
Karen carefully lifted the turtle out of the garden and placed him in a holding tub. The rescuer estimated the turtle was about 30 years old. She could tell he was stressed, hungry and scared, so she quickly moved him into her car and drove to a freshwater release site nearby.
According to Turtle Rescue of the Hamptons executive director Karen Testa, snapping turtles like this one can’t eat unless they’re in the water. These turtles don’t have saliva, so they need the water to help them swallow food. That’s why it’s so important to get snapping turtles to safety as soon as possible — if they’re not near water, they will starve.
Luckily, in this case, Karen got the snapping turtle to the release site in time. Back where he belonged, the turtle gleefully paddled away.
“[He] was extremely happy to be home,” Testa said.