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Hmmm, is life about the journey or the destination?

I was on one of my nature hikes recently when I came across this giant Snapping Turtle which by all appearances had died rather tragically. It was lying against the barrier baked by the sun. Hard to say exactly how or why it died. But I can speculate based on where it ended its days.

Snappers live in freshwater habitats – slow moving bodies of water with soft, muddy or sandy bottoms and dense aquatic vegetation such as shallow ponds, rivers, marshes, swamps and river edges. There was a deep creek twenty feet away where this Snapper likely lived.

Local conservation workers had created a shallow pond in the flats adjacent to the creek. It appears the Snapper migrated to this pond – perhaps as part of the mating and reproductive ritual – while the construction was underway. When it tried to return to the creek, its path was blocked by the makeshift fencing put in place to block human access to the work site.

I cannot find the conservation officials at fault for undertaking the project. They had the best of intentions and were creating a new habitat at a time when natural habitats of this type are all too rapidly disappearing. The Snapper was an unfortunate victim of the project.

I have inserted a photograph of a live Snapper above which by chance had a small Eastern Amberwing dragonfly hovering above it – a good reference for size comparison.

Snapping Turtles weigh on average between 10 to 35 pounds with the males being larger as they have to fight for mating rights. Very old males can reach up to 75 pounds. I would wager that this one was a male in the upper echelon of the size spectrum.

They are rather prehistoric looking creatures with massive heads, hooked beaks and exceptionally long, dinosaur-like tails. They are classified as a species of concern in Ontario vulnerable to population declines.

Snapping Turtles have relatively long lives. They commonly live 30 to 50 years. But studies have shown that some can reach 75 to 100 years which is quite comparable to a human life.

I have no way of knowing how old this Snapper was and how close it was to the natural end of its life. It was sad to see such a noble creature that had died simply because its path back home was blocked. But I am inclined to think it was a journey that it had to take to reproduce.

Perhaps this is a lesson to us. Life is a highway we travel not knowing what obstacles we will encounter and when one of them might prove to be insurmountable. But we cannot life in fear of the obstacles. We must embrace the unpredictability and forge on.

The demise of this giant and the circumstances surrounding it bring to mind the lyrics of the great singer-songwriter Harry Chapin in his song Greyhound: It’s got to be the going, not the getting there, that’s good.

~  Now Available Online from Amazon, Chapters Indigo or Barnes & Noble: Hunting Muskie, Rites of Passage – Stories by Michael Robert Dyet

~ Michael Robert Dyet is also the author of Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel (now out of print) which was a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com .

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Tags:   Harry Chapin · Harry Chapin Greyhound · metaphor · Michael Robert Dyet · Snapping TurtleNo Comments