I'M YOUR FOOD?! NO, YOU ARE THE FOOD!

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Bert2368

Senior Member
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Nov 29, 2018
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Hellish frozen Northern wasteland, aka MN
Met this creature on the road a few minutes ago. Dusk, she was looking for a warm sandy place to lay her eggs, most likely. I was thinking to get her out of the road before she got run over... She did not take kindly to my presence.

As soon as I got withing a couple of meters, she started LUNGING and SNAPPING at me, a very feisty, fast moving reptile.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_snapping_turtle



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In 7th grade, I had a biology teacher who grew up a country boy. One of the "practical" teaching experiences we got from Mr. Van Wormer was him bringing in a 15 kilo or so example of snapping turtle like this girl and demonstrating how to turn it into tasy food... Mr. V didn't reject much of anything but the shell and the skin & claws, everything else was cleaned, packed & portioned out for the k8tchen or freezer with a running commentary on how to cook it and what it would taste like- He even saved the eggs, for adding to soups.

Mr. V removed the turtle's heart, which was still beating?! Placed it in a beaker of saline solution with a bit of dextrose and a drop of adrenaline solution. That heart kept beating for over 48 hours. Don't screw with these dinosaurs, they're a tough bunch.

This teacher had a slightly different, more "practical" take on teaching us biology than would be acceptable now? We also leaned the anatomy of a white tailed deer this same way. We 7th graders were 12 years old, the age a kid could first hold a deer license and accompany an adult with a centerfire rifle deer hunting in our state.

I thought about eating it for maybe 10 seconds, then decided I wasn't hungry enough right now and helped her across the road instead. My boots have some serious new bite marks from being a good samaritan.
 
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