Writing — Travel & Photography
Florida Turtles Saved From Dangerous Road Crossings
Plus more Florida turtle stories highlighting the real danger
To the west of Orlando a ways, the bustling city gives way to country. There are many state parks and preserved areas. For being just minutes away from the monstrosity known as the Orlando theme park area, in stark contrast this area is amazingly rural.
One day, a friend of mine and I decided to check out the Lake Louisa State Park area. On one of the access roads we were driving on, we espied this turtle, who was in the middle of the road. Either it was trying to cross or perhaps it was getting some sun. This was one of those coolish days we Floridians have the audacity to call “winter”. Even though it’s nice to have some cooler weather sometimes, most Floridians DO NOT like “winter”. At all.
I do not have adept turtle handling skills, though it doesn’t look like it would be that difficult. Still, I’m glad my friend was along, who has lived in Florida far longer than me and thus has much more experience being a Floridian. He picked up the turtle from the middle of the road and safely relocated it to a place that was as far from the road as possible without hopping the fence line.
The true danger of turtle crossings
Here’s a turtle that was not so lucky! 😿 Posted by the Conservancy of SWFL:
On back roads like the one we were on, it’s unlikely that a turtle will actually get run over, but it still could happen. However, I’ve seen turtles attempting to cross the road in Florida quite a few times before, and of course, the worst is when they are trying to cross one of the busy highways or interstates. As much as a person wants to stop and save them, it can be difficult to do this without causing a pile-up or getting run over.
Still, I have seen some brave motorists do this. Luckily I’ve personally never witnessed anyone getting hurt.
But, I read this heartbreaking story of a woman who got killed in a hit-and-run just this past April. Amazingly enough, the turtle was saved. It was only when going to get back into her car that the unthinkable happened. Watching the husband break down in the video was just awful!
Luckily the hit-and-run driver was quickly caught and arrested!
Endangered Turtles
Florida has numerous species of land, sea, and freshwater turtles. Many of these are considered threatened or endangered, as their habitat is being swallowed up and destroyed by an overpopulation of us humans.
Not sure what type of turtle we saved, but it does look similar to a gopher tortoise. Gopher tortoises are indeed considered “threatened”. Threatened or not, I’m glad we saved it.
Here’s a website on identifying turtles in Florida:
Thanks to Randy Runtsch for this awesome pub. This is my first post here.
Check out more awesome Wildlife Trekker stories from these talented writers: Erika Burkhalter, Sharing Words, and Anne Bonfert.
As well as this awesome turtle story by Dennett:
