It's not always bats

[den]

This eastern snake-necked tortoise followed the storm water system from the Macquarie River to the centre of town. She crawled out of a drain about 3km from the river. I rescued and kept her for a few days to see if any injuries showed.












Eastern Snake-Necked Tortoise. The shell is about 20cm long

I know she is female because:

1 - The plastern (under-side shell) was flat. It is concave in males so they can... um... you know... fit together.

2 - She was wandering. Male find a nice water hole and sit. The female has to do all the searching for a mate, then wander looking for a nesting site. Eggs are laid in November and hatch after a couple of months.




Release day!





These are aquatic tortoises, only coming ashore to lay eggs or to find a new waterhole. This photo was taken using a polarizing filter to kill the reflection so the animal is visible. The water is approx. 3 feet deep, but dropping to 15 feet further out.

Comments

[tropism.livejournal.com]

...What a positively ugly turtle. %)

[cringer.livejournal.com]

I've never seen one of these before, thanks for the pictures. I love the first one. :)

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

What a bizarre, ugly, beautiful creature. :) I love the eyes.

[klwalton.livejournal.com]

*I* think she's gorgeous!! But I've always been partial to reptiles. To my mother's consternation :):).

[tropism.livejournal.com]

Augh, the eyes are the part I hate. %)

turkle

[weyrdbird.livejournal.com]

Wow, what a long neck!:)

I love the first photo , sort of a deer-in-the-headlights look. Wonder if she was hunting, or just looking for a hatchery site?

Ugly?! No Way

[bearblue.livejournal.com]

She's a beauty and dig that smile on the first photo.

Thank you for sharing!

[elynne.livejournal.com]

My first thought on the first picture was that it looked like some kind of CGI critter. Wow. That is so incredibly neat. You're a very nifty person, have I said that recently? :)

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

Not recently. 8)

Re: turkle

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

just going walk-about, I think. They don't look for hatching sites until spring.

[ldy.livejournal.com]

You rock :)

Thank you!

(And on behalf of your less verbal reptilian and mammalian friends, "thank you" as well!)

[ladydaisy.livejournal.com]

Yep..

You rock!!