[UPDATE: Oh, it's a common snapping turtle. See comments.]
This big critter looks to made of 100% muscle.
Take care you don’t run into it in Golden Gate Park on a dread sunny day:
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(Just guessing here, alligator snapping turtle Macrochelys temminckii?)
Snap snap!
It’s not just hippies what get baked in Golden Gate Park on April 20th every year – it’s turtles as well.
As seen at Stow Lake:
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Turtle-dude, you are sooooo high, man.
First it was all like this:
But then it was all like this:
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See what I mean? Pwned!
How wude, huh?
This is what Hands Across the Sand looked like today over at less-foggy-than-expected Ocean Beach way out there in western San Francisco.
“Ocean Beach, San Francisco, CA – Ocean Beach across from the Beach Chalet, 1000 Great Highway Joining hands at noon. The Ocean beach event includes spelling out a large “Don’t Drill” using people to make the letters. It will photographed from the air. Be there by 10:30 for that.”
Yes, that’s media hound Frank Chu in there:
via DeniseNelson10, click to expand
We’ll just have to wait to see the photos from the air. (Did they use a petroleum-burning twirlypopper to take the photo, or maybe they used a kite? We’ll have to wait and see…)
[UPDATE: They used a twirlypopper, a Robinson actually, which is kind of a helicopter. A Republican one, ironically, from the Frank D. Robinson Helicopter company. Let's see here, Robinson's delivered something like 900 choppers so far and they've only had 262+(!) fatal accidents, per the Wiki. Wow. Also, it would be nice if this R44 model had inflatable floats for over-water operations, but oh well. A kite, and a DSLR (plus a surfboard, if necessary) also could have worked, by the way. I know it would have been less exciting...]
Here’s what you do – you go over to Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park, somewhere near Heron Island, and start up your pig call. Soooo-weeeee! And soon you’ll see pig-nosed turtles, weighing up to 30 pounds.
Like this ugly customer. Click to expand.
Do some people abandon pets at Golden Gate Park?
Yes, some people do.
The plaintive wail from the owner of this green Ford Ranger pickup on the mean streets of NOPA / Western Addition:
“EVERYTHING HAS BEEN STOLEN ALREADY. [Sobbing Ninja Turtle icon, possibly Leonardo.] DON’T BOTHER!”
Click to expand.
Here are your clues about whether your turtle is a red-eared slider – does it slide off of rocks into the water when you get too close and does it have red where you’d expect it to have ears, as shown? Well then, you’ve got yourself an exotic, invasive animule that doesn’t belong in Golden Gate Park.
The best place to see these critters is Golden Gate Park – here’s one from Stow Lake.
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Bad turtle! That’s a bad turtle, go away!
The San Francisco Bomb Squad seems to be having a busy 2009 already, non? Yesterday evening, another incident backed up traffic quite a bit in the area around Kezar Stadium, with a parade of blocked vehicles reaching all the way to the interesting intersection of Fell and Masonic.
SFWeekly Snitch Matthew Smith has some info about the large blast that resulted.
When the bomb squad doesn’t send in the robot, they have the option to use this guy. It takes quite a while to get this Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle outfit on. Click to expand:
Have a safe 2009.
[UPDATE: Apparently, the suspicious object wasn't that suspicious at all.]
