Tilly in a recent photo.
Tommy, the "Mother of All Snappers". At least around our pond.
We now officially have three snapping turtles living in our pond and/or river. I stumbled on Tiny, the smallest of the bunch, down by the river yesterday. Of course, I didn't have the camera, so you'll just have to take my word for it. Tiny, as his name implies, is considerably smaller than Tommy or Tilly. He was only about 12 inches long from head to tail. Tommy on the other hand is a real monster. His head is about 4 inches wide and 6 inches long, and his overall length, head to tail, is probably 24 inches. Tilly is somewhere in between. Our three turtles could come straight out of Goldilocks except that they are turtles instead of bears. A small detail. What is the word for a group of turtles? We all know about a herd of cows, a swarm of bees, a gaggle of geese, a murder of crows (what's up with that?), a school of fish (also very odd), and a pack of wolves. You get the idea. Animal groups are supposed to have names. But what's the name for a group of turtles such as Tommy, Tilly and Tiny? I didn't know, so I made up a name to use for the title of this post. I'm hoping it catches on ... as are the turtles. They've been discriminated against long enough.
1 comment:
In the words of our mother that always ring in our ears, I had to "look it up" after you raised the question of what to call a group of turtles. According to the sources I found online, the classic collective term for a group of turtles is a 'bale of turtles". Makes no sense...and is almost as funny as a rhumba of rattlesnakes. Check out http://www.myuniversalfacts.com/2005/11/what-group-of-animals-are-called.html for other odd animal group names!
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