Turtle tales

During the recent rain, David was driving back from Yass when he came across a snake-necked turtle crossing the road. David must have a turtle as his totem as he seems to see them when no-one else would even notice them. He stopped to help it across the road and found it had been damaged, presumably by a car, and had a back leg bleeding and a cracked shell. He picked it up carefully (turtles have a nasty habit of excreting the most foul-smelling fluid from their musk glands when they are disturbed) and brought it home for some TLC. Frequent bathings with antiseptic cleaned up the wound and disinfected the shell and a few days later turtle was walking quite briskly on the grass and looking very bright eyed (if not exactly bushy-tailed). David and Phil took him down to the dam and released him in the bushes nearby and he promptly headed for the water. We know there are other turtles in the dam so hopefully he will adjust fairly readily to his new environment.
The turtle experience had me wondering what kind of things snake-necked turtles like to eat, so I trawled the internet and came across some interesting information. Chelodina longicolli, to give them their proper name, are mostly carnivores, and will eat worms, mosquito larvae, fish, snails and red meat. The difference between a turtle and a tortoise is that a tortoise lives on land, and eats vegetation. A snake necked turtle, on the other hand, is mostly a carnivore and will only eat when submerged in the water. You can apparently tell the difference between a male and a female turtle by the length of their tail and the shape of the back of their shell. Males have a longer tail while females are generally bigger. If you are lucky enough to see a few turtles together, it’s handy to know that the collective noun for a group of these aquatic creatures is ‘a bale of turtles’. An even more interesting piece of trivia is the little known fact that some turtles can breathe underwater through their bottoms, especially during hibernation. Fascinating trick. Must remember to mention that at the next dinner party when there's a lull in the conversation!