I was driving down a country side-road today, from Hwy 8 south of Cambridge to Hwy 6, when I saw a commotion ahead of me in the opposite lane. A car had pulled over and a man was standing in the middle of the road near a grayish lump. Several cars had stopped behind him.
I thought at first that some raccoon had been injured by a car, and he was stopping to decide whether to put it out of its misery or call the humane society or something. But no, as I passed carefully, I could see that it was a large snapping turtle, and it was very alive indeed, and trying to cross the road.
It reminded me of a situation a few years ago on the 401. As we were driving east to Toronto, we spied a mallard duck and six or seven chicks headed across the median, single file, waddling with audacious determination. They had obviously already crossed half of a very busy four-lane highway and were headed for the other half, which was loaded with traffic. We couldn't imagine that all of them would make it safely, and in fact, the mother duck looked a little hysterical but stubborn, if it is possible for a duck to look hysterical. I pictured a great 18-wheeler swerving to avoid the ducks and plowing into a mini-van.
What could you do? Even if we had stopped, could we have rescued them? We might have frightened them right into the path of the oncoming traffic.
But this turtle was on a quiet county side-road. Three cars were stopped, waiting for it to safely cross. I'll bet the drivers of those cars felt quite virtuous. And probably a little amused: in the process of building that country road in the first place, thousands of turtles, frogs, ducks, and other wildlife were mercilessly slaughtered, crushed or buried by bulldozers and trucks, habitat destroyed, migration paths blocked, food chain disrupted. And now we all kindly stop so a single snapper can travel from the swamp on one side of the road to the swamp on the other side. Quite likely, when he gets there, he'll find that the food chain there is just as perplexing.
Copyright © 1999 Bill Van Dyk All rights reserved.
