Blog Post 4 - Turtles

    I found a stream close to campus last week and decided to follow it on my walk this morning. Eventually, I found myself walking next to the Trinity river and was honestly surprised to see so much wildlife in and around the river. At the beginning of my walk I even saw a fish jump out of the water just for a brief moment. The most interesting part of my walk was when I noticed a few turtles perched up on a fallen log. I started walking down a steep hill to get closer to the turtles and hopefully catch a more detailed glimpse at what they look like. I got to the bottom of the hill and as I was about fifteen feet away, the turtles dropped off the log, one by one, into the Trinity river. 

    I’m not entirely sure what type of turtles these are but I assume they would be snapping turtles. I was so shocked by the fact that I actually saw turtles that I didn’t get a chance to look at them up close. From what I could tell, however, they were both about a foot long and were just sitting there, basking in the sun. To be honest, I was relatively surprised that they were so scared of me, given that their natural habitat is the water. I feel like most animals that don’t spend much time on land don’t have a natural instinct to be afraid of humans yet.

    When I traveled down to the Galapagos islands, this was definitely the case. I guess the turtles up here in Texas have unfortunately developed that instinctual response to run away from humans. I’m extremely glad I went on my walk this morning because it reminded just how much wildlife is just right off campus. I was so shocked to see as many animals as I did and I can’t wait to come back next week.

Edward Abbey

"Not showing off, for I'd seen his exhibition of recklessness at other times, but simply out of high spirits, for the fun and the hell of it."

"Any cow without a brand---"slick"---belonged to the finder."