It's Tough Being Soft...

[Clark]

... Soft Shell Turtle that is.



Caught this female Apalone ferox on the side of the road, trying to excavate a hole for her eggs.
I know from experience, and maybe you do too, what these ants feel like.
So her pain tolerance surpasses mine, any day of the week.
Eventually she gave up. The turf that gets mowed here, was not the sugar sand that is desirable for this type of nest building.











On the flip side, things could be worse....







Thanks for looking

 

[wjs2nd]

Some nose on her. oke: Do they like swampy areas?

 

[SlipperFan]

Everybody's gotta eat, but I can't tell what it was?

Good photos, both.

 

[NYEric]

Everybody's gotta eat, but I can't tell what it was?

soft shell turtle...

 

[Shiva]

What is this little ball behind the head? Almost looks like a snail.

 

[biothanasis]

wow!!!!

 

[Clark]

Billy- maybe wetlands would describe habitat better. Some open water seemed to be where we seen the bulk of these. Common species imo.

Dot, Eric is right. That is a soft shell turtle flipped over.

Michel- for a long time I just assumed that was a snail. Some gator pics that we have, it was obvious that snails were attached to those reptiles.
But after cropping a couple other images, now I don't think so.








I think it is a deteriorated one of these.





The gator was shot at 1/60th. Guess ya had to be there.

 

[SlipperFan]

Well, I'm glad you were!

 

[wjs2nd]

I think the snails clean the turtles shell or else plant life would build up on the shell.

 

[Clark]

Let me have the IP address of the POS.