You Oughta Know

Things people ought to know: random facts about turtles!
As some of you may know, my campus job is to feed and clean the biology department's exotic turtle collection. There are 104 turtles in this weird downstairs closet at St Olaf, and I, the lucky one with an activated keycard, can get in for 6 hours every week and take care of them. I have a lot of stories about the turtles, and about random professors who walk in while I'm washing them, but I feel that I must tell the public about one turtle in particular.
Meet Chomper, the Christmas Turtle. As you can see, he's adorable in the ugliest way possible. In addition to being the only turtle in the room that squeaks/grunts, he also has the added advantage of being the most awesome species. Bighead turtles live in southeast asia, in fast-running cold mountain streams. Turtles are cold-blooded, so they need sunlight in order to get their food warm enough to digest; so these turtles have learned to climb 30-40 foot trees (they have a big head to balance out their shell, their tail can support their body weight, and their legs go straight forward instead of to the side like most turtles). Now the fun thing about this trait is that when they get scared, they don't climb back down the tree- they just let go. So back BEFORE devolopers came along and drove them to near extinction, canoeists would come along making a racket, and before they knew it turtles would start falling from the sky. I believe that is an awesome image, and thusly had to share it with you.
Yay for knowing something random! I'm pretty sure that if I was a witch, my patronus would be a turtle. Except maybe a giant mexican musk turtle- they're huge (shell as big as my torso) and can bite limbs off. Here's a baby: ain't he cute?
that's all folks. nullas problemas habemus, vita bullae est sub mare! (We got no troubles, life is the bubbles under the sea!)
Sarah M
P.S. Hi mallory. I think you're awesome.