I Like Turtles

I do like turtles but I never really developed much of an affinity for them until I jumped in the water with them.  When you get in the water with an aquatic animal you realize they live in a much different world than you and I.  I did a lot of free diving with these animals and it was so much fun!  Some of them are curious, some ignore you, and others try to get as far away from you as possible.  I had to change my tactics for each species in order to get footage of them.

One thing in particular that I noticed was their behavior difference in and out of the water.  I have encountered many snapping turtles when they were crossing land from one body of water to another and every time they have acted very offended to have my help in getting them across the road or over a fence.  This is because land is not their domain.  Turtles are very slow and clumsy on land.  For the snapping turtle this means it has to put on a ferocious show when it feels threatened because land is where it is most vulnerable.  Now, when I went underwater with these guys they were calm and allowed me to approach much closer than the ones I found on land.  In fact, they seemed to hardly care that I was even there.  They would just sit and sway to the flow of the river.

Turtles are awesome animals that deserve our respect and maintain a very important role in nature.