Snapping Turtle

Since moving Owen has seen much more of the turtles here than I have, probably because I usually have two noisy barn dogs or a loud meowing barn cat following me around.  For months I even teased him that the big snapping turtle he claimed to see was his imaginary friend!  Owen claimed to see it from his office window in the pond and in the grass.  We do appear to be living amidst a turtle thoroughfare, as they are frequently walking between ponds and through the pasture.

The dogs and I see plenty of little box turtles on our travels to and from the barn, which are perplexing for the dogs.  Is it a rock?  Is it a ball?  Is it another animal?  So many confusing options.  However, neither the dogs nor I had seen the turkey-platter sized snapping turtle yet.  

Finally when I was getting the truck unloaded from grocery shopping and a run to the feed store I saw the snapping turtle!  Since it was so hot the dogs weren't with me as I didn't want to cook them in the vehicle, which was just as well since the poor turtle looked like someone had been trying to chew on him with some raw and injured parts on the front of his shell.  I ran in the house and got my good camera, and also took a little video with my phone.  

I was impressed with how prehistoric the turtle looked.  It had a very dragon-like physique, with dorsal points on its tail and small leathery protrusions on its legs and neck.  It's certainly the largest turtle I've ever seen in real life!  

Here is the video of the turtle walking down the hill towards the pond.

 

One more video I got recently was of the Fowlers Toads.  They sound like sheep!  The first evening we heard them and honestly thought someone’s sheep had gotten loose and were at our place (a not unlikely occurrence in Colorado!).  We followed the sounds to the pond, then looked them up online and discovered the source was these toads!