Sunday, August 22, 2010

Addendum to the muddling post - this is how it's done. I can't say I'm a fan of eating them, but I want to do what that guy is doing.
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2 comments:

Unknown said...

If we take this turtle aficionado at his word, he thinks he's saving the turtles by digging them out of their burrows. The turtles dig these burrows to escape or sit through adverse environmental conditions, like the cold or low water levels. Considering this, what are everyone's thoughts about digging them out?

Second, one individual was harvested (which is legal in Louisiana, individuals are allowed to harvest one per day). The harvested turtle was a male, but will it be a female tomorrow? Considering how vulnerable turtle populations are to declines following the loss of sexually mature individual females, what is the net effect of harvesting one turtle/throwing some others in the water?

10:17 AM
Bernard Brown said...

Good points - I'm also not sure that he's doing them any favors by relocating them; turtles that old would have seen a few droughts through by burrowing in where they have been burrowing.

It just looks like fun to find them and dig them up like that. Maybe this is a self-serving judgment call, but I imagine releasing them where they were dug up, perhaps towards the water in the depression, wouldn't kill them.

We might as well throw in the problems for a human eating one of these - we're talking about apex predators/scavengers that live a long time and are maybe the best bioaccumulaters of pollutants in that ecosystem. Maybe they taste good, but they can't be good for you to eat.

1:09 PM

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