First Turtle Rescue of 2022! Winehouse the Snapper.

We received a call on Monday 2/21 from a woman working at UNC Pembroke down near Lumberton NC. They had some construction work going on and a backhoe driver had been removing an old brush pile and had struck a hibernating turtle in the process. Thankfully, he reported the incident to M. M. and she called the NCWRC looking for assistance. We have our collection and rehabilitation permits through them and they gave her our number!

M. M. was so kind to drive the grumpy snapper halfway to us so we could meet and collect the turtle and evaluate the extent of its injuries. We are always so excited to meet other folks who care so much for their wildlife around them. They had affectionately named the turtle Winehouse and had carefully boxed it up for us (with plenty of ventilation, of course).

Once we got the turtle back home, we unboxed a young snapping turtle about 13in. long and feisty enough that we knew it would be okay. We started off by just washing the turtle off in some lukewarm water so we could see the damages to its carapace a bit more clearly. It had been buried deep in the mud and debris for winter, so there was a lot to wash off.

After it was rinsed and inspected we found that there was an injury right above its tail to the shell and then cracks on either side from the pressure of how it was crunched. We disinfected and scrubbed those spots thoroughly making sure to keep clear of its snapping jaws. Winehouse did not enjoy this one bit. Luckily there was no injury to the rear legs or the tail, so it looks like Winehouse avoided any major spinal trauma and most of the wounds are superficial.

Once it was all clean and disinfected, we placed Winehouse in a big container half filled with clean leaf matter and mulch, so it could be comfortable and feel secure. It immediately began burying itself. We haven't checked the sex of the turtle because there is absolutely no reason to stress out the poor wild animal any more than necessary. In a few days, after Winehouse has been able to rest and relax a little bit, we'll pull it back out and clean, disinfect and apply some antibiotic ointment to the shell injuries. We've reached out to the NC State Herpetologists and may contact the vet school just to make sure there isn't anything else we need to do for our snappy friend, but for the time being it's just keeping everything clean while it heals. Hopefully in a few weeks we can release Winehouse into a safer area where it can thrive!

Snapping Turtles are some of the most cold resistant turtles in America and have even been seen frozen under the ice on ponds and lakes during the winter. We would like to extend our thanks to M. M. for helping to rescue this grumpy dinosaur of a turtle and to the person who saw that they had injured it and brought it to the right people! We will always accept any turtle in need without judgement!

As a bonus, here are some pictures of two baby snappers that were found on 2/23 near Jordan Lake in a ditch runoff that was quickly going dry. They'll be kept until after that last freezing night and then relocated to a safer, more reliable water source, since snappers are one of the turtle species that can only effectively eat when submerged in water. It's snapper season!