For the first few months we were living here we had a turtle in the yard. I like to deep-water the lemon tree, mango tree and bananas, so I often leave the water on, running at just a trickle. In the high-clay soil here that is often enough for the water to pond-up a little, just a centimeter or so, usually. Turtle seemed to like that.
One day, I found him at the front gate trying to leave. He wouldn’t fit under the gate though, even though he could stick his head under it and look out. Just a road and traffic out there — not a safe place for a turtle. I flopped him (or her, or it) over and took this picture of the underside, which some turtleologist out there will undoubtedly recognize.
Myrtle our turtle
Then I flipped it back upright, and waited about two minutes before it began to emerge — first the head (and hence this photo:)
Myrtle emerges and scans the area for threats
Then the feet hit the ground and off he went, back into the yard. We don’t have any dogs, so the yard is really the safest place for a turtle, but we also don’t have another turtle, so maybe it was lonely. Just before Christmas it disappeared, probably through a gap in the neighbor’s fence. Just hope it didn’t end up as soup for one of the neighbors.
The coastline along this part of Colima is well known as a nesting ground for sea-turtles. Some of the poor fisher-folk who live more from their catch than from a traditional cash economy find the turtle eggs a rich supplement to their piscine diet. Most of them know that if they get caught they will get in trouble, but since the police don’t patrol the beaches at night, it is unlikely they will get caught.
There are environmental groups that do patrol the beach, and since they have no legal authority to stop poachers, they try to beat them at their own game, digging up fresh nests whenever one is found, and moving the eggs to safe area of beach that is fenced and guarded.
NOTE: for those that scan, but don’t read. This post mentions sea-turtles. The pictures are not of a sea-turtle — duh!