Website review: Dave, the Chelydra serpentina on th...
Shitao discovered this in Photography
•1 reviews since Feb 20, 2008
photography
•flickr.com/photos/shitao/2280320742/
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Shitao discovered 4 weeks ago- Dave, the Chelydra serpentina on the MKT Trail While Dave was good-sized at about 40 pounds and 20 inches long, he was incredibly friendly, curious, and thoroughly lacking in the aggressive characteristics of his cousin, Macrochelys temminckii, the alligator snapping turtle. That said, most common snappers like Dave can bite a broom handle in two and they often display an orneriness that encourages a wide berth on a narrow path like the MKT trail near Rocheport, Missouri. Old Dave just trudged right down the middle of the path as if he were bound and determined to get the last piece of pecan pie at the restaurant at the trailhead. We parted company there; me not feeling it was my duty to vouch for his fine disposition with the chuckwagon cook who would bar admission if seating was at a premium that afternoon..... Turtle Now I see it-- it nudges with its bulldog head the slippery stems of the lilies, making them tremble; and now it noses along in the wake of the little brown teal who is leading her soft children from one side of the pond to the other; she keeps close to the edge and they follow closely, the good children-- the tender children, the sweet children, dangling their pretty feet into the darkness. And now will come--I can count on it--the murky splash, the certain victory of that pink and gassy mouth, and the frantic circling of the hen while the rest of the chicks flare away over the water and into the reeds, and my heart will be most mournful on their account. But, listen, what's important? Nothing's important except that the great and cruel mystery of the world, of which this is a part, not to be denied. Once, I happened to see, on a city street, in summer, a dusty, fouled turtle plodded along-- a snapper-- broken out I suppose from some backyard cage-- and I knew what I had to do-- I looked it right in the eyes, and I caught it-- I put it, like a small mountain range, into a knapsack, and I took it out of the city, and I let it down into the dark pond, into the cool water, and the light of the lilies, to live. --Mary Oliver
