A surprise find...

Yvonne G

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I was closing up shop last night and when I went into the Aldabran tortoises' shed I found this on one of the pig blankets:

soft shell a.jpg soft shell b.jpg

This is my big female Florida soft shell turtle. Here's the fence around the pond. You can see that there is a horizontal board across the top of the fence all the way around. I gave it a very good inspection and I can't see how she got over (or under) the fence:

soft shell c.jpg

And now - "Home, at last!!":

soft shell d.jpg

She must be getting ready to nest. She's never offered to try escaping before and I've had her almost 20 years.
 

Yvonne G

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It's a good thing the big tortoises hadn't gone in for the night. That flat turtle would have been even flatter!

I see she has a little cut on her shell. I'll bet she climbed over the fence on the left leading into the baby YF area then squeezed between the break in the boards and out into the Aldabran yard.
 
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Yvonne G

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I've allowed the pond area to become overgrown due to my being under the weather and lazy, so there's not a good nesting site in there for her. No bare ground at all, and the weeds are too tall.
 

dmmj

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you know what they say where there's a will there's a way
 

kathyth

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What a surprise to find her there. It's s good thing you make the rounds.
 

Markw84

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Both softshells and musk turtles are extremely good climbers, even though both are amongst the most aquatic! They have limbs that are not as restricted by a big shell and can move their forelimbs in a larger arc which facilitates climbing. The only other turtles I've experienced as such great climbers are our Pacific Pond - but they are much more terrestrial than softshells and musk! In the wild, I watched a Pacific Pond go straight up a 12 foot vertical waterfall with no problem in a matter of a few minutes! I couldn't have made it up that!
 

Yvonne G

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Both softshells and musk turtles are extremely good climbers, even though both are amongst the most aquatic! They have limbs that are not as restricted by a big shell and can move their forelimbs in a larger arc which facilitates climbing. The only other turtles I've experienced as such great climbers are our Pacific Pond - but they are much more terrestrial than softshells and musk! In the wild, I watched a Pacific Pond go straight up a 12 foot vertical waterfall with no problem in a matter of a few minutes! I couldn't have made it up that!

I've seen the pond turtles climb a 6' redwood privacy fence, only to be deterred at the top by the horizontal 2x4.
 

Pearly

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I was closing up shop last night and when I went into the Aldabran tortoises' shed I found this on one of the pig blankets:

View attachment 170365 View attachment 170366

This is my big female Florida soft shell turtle. Here's the fence around the pond. You can see that there is a horizontal board across the top of the fence all the way around. I gave it a very good inspection and I can't see how she got over (or under) the fence:

View attachment 170367

And now - "Home, at last!!":

View attachment 170368

She must be getting ready to nest. She's never offered to try escaping before and I've had her almost 20 years.
Poor baby! Looks likeshe was looking for a warm spot
 

Yvonne G

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Maybe she was just a little chilly. Glad she didn't get made flatter

You and me both. I really doubt the aldabran would have paid attention to if he were squishing a turtle or not. The pig blankets aren't on, so it wasn't any warmer there than anyplace else. Don't know how she ended up in that shed. Probably was just following the wall.
 

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