As I’ve alluded to elsewhere, one of the really cool things about Canada is that humanity hasn’t killed off all the big interesting animals here yet (unlike in the UK); as well as that, Canada has turtles!

In the UK, we don’t have any native turtles; occasionally, you get the odd feral Red-Eared Slider taking up residence when its original owners decided that they couldn’t cope with a full-sized adult. When I was young, the UK used to have quite a few tortoises about the place of assorted species, but they’re now very much rarer since the import of them was (quite rightly – it was barbaric) banned.

As a wildlife enthusiast, living in the same country as turtles is awesome! There are several species in Canada, but the biggest (and undoubtedly stroppiest) is the Snapping Turtle (Chelydra serpentina); I don’t ever seem to get tired of watching these things.

Looking at a Snapper almost feels like looking back through time – they look so primeval in some respects; they rather remind me of reconstructions of the age of ruling reptiles.

Looking back at me, I sometimes wonder what they’re thinking: most likely, it’ll be along the lines of “I hope that fat bloke falls in – there’s good eating on one of those”…!