Some people consider turtles weird animals, so they never want to touch them if they come across them by accident.
What to do when you find a turtle in your backyard? Although they may seem hardy, these animals may be relatively delicate and easily startled.
It’s crucial to understand how to react appropriately when encountering one. Let’s delve into this post to learn in detail!
Table of Contents
Why Is A Turtle In Your Backyard?
Typically, there are two reasons why turtles enter your backyard: hibernation and egg-laying.
1. Hibernation
When wintertime arrives, these animals search for a safe and quiet area to hibernate. So, their main objective is to find a spot to stay in the cold weather.
Usually, these creatures spend their winter months at the lake’s bottom.
If they cannot discover a location, they may search for a large stack of leaves or a secure area where they will dig the holes.
If a turtle experiences hibernation in your yard, you may not know it’s sleeping there.
You can pick up this animal and take it outdoors if you do not want it to leave a hole on your grass and ruin it.
2. Egg Laying
The second cause is that these creatures are hunting for a place to deposit their eggs, which often takes place around late spring and early summer.
Put this animal outdoors on the fence after picking it up, hoping it won’t come back. Otherwise, you may let it locate an area to release the eggs.
It will almost certainly come back later to lay additional eggs, which is the issue with allowing it to bury them.
Therefore, carefully pick up this creature and move it outdoors in your yard if you do not want this situation to happen.
You don’t need to be worried about turtles hanging around close to their eggs. It’s not their nature.
The only issues that could occur are serious harm to the grass or the turtle consuming vegetables from your yard. So, your choice of action is up to you.
It’s better to figure out how it came there for the first time and obstruct the entrance to prevent the turtle from laying eggs in the yard.
However, if you’re okay, you may allow the turtle to lay eggs in the garden unprotected. Alternatively, you can assist in its hatching.
What To Do When You Find A Turtle In Your Backyard?
If you accidentally see a turtle in your backyard, below are the best ways to deal with it!
1. Don’t Be Scared
Turtles are completely harmless creatures, which is the first thing you must know. They won’t harm a little insect, not a human.
Even the most violent turtles, such as the snapping or musk turtles, won’t hurt you if you don’t bother them.
You are likely to scare this animal more than it does to you. However, you should avoid putting your hands close to their mouths.
Therefore, you shouldn’t be scared of this creature that just happened to wander into your yard.
If you see a male turtle, it is probably just having a walk. It will go out of your backyard without being thrown away.
If it’s a female one, it may be pregnant and look for a safe place to lay eggs. For this reason, it may want to go further to find an ideal area.
2. Ignore It
Generally speaking, it’s best to leave turtles alone. These creatures are frequently moving between early spring and late summer.
If you reside close to water or lush vegetation, you have undoubtedly already seen a lot of tortoises and turtles.
Picking up a turtle outside captivity increases your chances of hurting it rather than helping it.
It is, therefore, better to leave these animals alone unless they appear to be a different species or if there is no surrounding turtle habitat.
3. Determine The Species
Turtles may occasionally escape from captivity or be freed by their keepers if they no longer like them.
These creatures might gravely threaten the local animals and are not likely to be familiar with your place.
Due to their lack of acclimatization to the natural habitat, they cannot live in nature.
Moreover, it may be against the law to disturb, adopt, or approach these creatures, depending on their species.
4. Assist It In Crossing Its Road
If you see this creature trying to cross the street, it is best to pick up and guide it on the path it is going.
This way, you can help them prevent potential accidents. If they cross the road safely in this way, the predators find it hard to attack and kill them,
But be careful to cross the street in the path it’s already been moving.
It’s crucial to wash your hands thoroughly after touching these wild animals since they often have a lot of dangerous bacteria on them.
Disinfectant is a fantastic alternative if you do not have water or soap. If you don’t have any of those, it’s better to pick up this little creature with a napkin.
5. Don’t Release It To Water.
Pond turtles are more likely to enter your property than other types of turtles.
Nevertheless, before handling this animal, you should be careful if you don’t know how to identify its species.
It’s better not to throw this creature into the water like a river or a pond. That’s because some species can’t swim.
Furthermore, leaving a turtle in a river that is not the same water it originally comes from might still be deadly.
Therefore, it’s best to be careful before releasing this creature into water. If you intend to throw this creature, you should speak with a veterinarian first.
Otherwise, you may call an animal rescue agency to ask whether they can take this animal away.
6. Don’t Change Its Direction.
Do not swerve out of the way of a snapping turtle if you see it crossing your garden or yard.
Animals that snap have excellent spatial awareness and are confident in their direction.
These animals have problems navigating their way back home when you alter their initial course.
Consequently, if you pick up this animal, release it there, in the same general area where it is moving.
The snapping turtle is the most deadly and aggressive of all turtles. Thus, don’t try to touch this creature while it is traveling.
7. Protect The Baby Turtles
The outdoors is a dangerous place for young turtles. Since they cannot defend themselves, they are prone to perish before reaching the river.
Therefore, if you come across a stray young turtle, bring it indoors as quickly as possible and call for help, which will increase their survival.
Also, if you do not want these animals to lay eggs in your garden, the best way is to call an animal rescue agency.
After that, they will move the pregnant turtle to an appropriate location so that it can lay the eggs.
8. Contact An Animal Rescue
Contact a veterinarian or local animal rescue organization if you believe the turtle you encountered in your backyard is unhealthy.
Otherwise, with the proper instruction, you might potentially try to assist the turtle in healing on your own.
Is It Possible To Keep A Turtle You Find Outside?
The short answer is no. It’s likely against the law to take a turtle out of nature there, as it is in some regions.
Moreover, most wild turtles don’t want to have life as pets, which might cause them to feel imprisoned and miserable and lead to health issues.
Wild turtles may carry disease, another major issue; you surely do not want to keep pets that may unexpectedly make you ill.
Another of the main issues is that removing just some turtles from their habitat runs the risk of ruining them.
Besides, the ecology has become very unstable in certain regions due to the sharp fall in the turtle population.
An unstable ecology may increase your neighborhood’s snakes, mosquitoes, spiders, and other unwelcome species.
Therefore, you might not want to upset any environment’s balance further to cut to the chase.
In A Nutshell
After referring to this post, you have got to know what to do when you find a turtle in your backyard.
You can apply many ways to deal with this wild animal. Most importantly, don’t be scared when crossing this creature because it’s harmless.
Moreover, before releasing one into the water, it’s best to determine its species or consult with a vet first.
Never keep this animal as a pet in your home for several reasons. Hopefully, this article will be helpful for you.
Thanks for reading!