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Index of Subjects Hi Christopher, In reference to "Frank" and his blog, here's his background, http://blogs.thatpetplace.com/thatreptileblog/about/ He has a masters in Biology and is a consultant for several zoos. To abruptly refer to his wikipedia submission as "Written by someone called Frank", attempts to make his opinion anonymous and of no value. Hans ----- Original Message ----- From: "Christopher Majka" <c.majka@ns.sympatico.ca> To: <naturens@chebucto.ns.ca> Sent: Wednesday, June 24, 2009 1:58 PM Subject: Re: [NatureNS] Handling Snapping Turtles > Hi Hans, > > On 24-Jun-09, at 1:15 PM, Hans Toom wrote: > >> There tends to be more support for Peter Hope's position on not handling >> the animal by the tail, than not. >> >> From wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Snapping_Turtle , >> perhaps not a scientific resource but usually fairly reliable. "It is a >> common misconception that Common snappers may be safely picked up by its >> tail, with no harm to the animal; in fact, this has a high chance of >> injuring the turtle, especially the tail itself and the vertebral >> column". > > This is part of the "lore" that I was referring to. The Wikipedia is not > a scientific publication as you point out, and the entries in it vary a > great deal in reliability depending on who has written and/or contributed > to them (which one can't determine), so it is effectively an anonymous > source. > > In the case of this entry on snapping turtles, you'll notice that the > cited source for the statement above is a blog: > > http://blogs.thatpetplace.com/thatreptileblog/2008/06/24/handling-snapping-turtles-chelydra-serpentina-and-other-large-turtles/ > > Written by someone called "Frank" that, in turn, says: > > "Do not lift snappers by their tails, as is often done – this will cause > severe injuries to the spine and internal organs." > > Which again is an unsupported assertion by an almost anonymous source. > This may or may not be true, but I've tracked enough "urban legends" that > circulate without substantiation on the Internet to want to have a source > in fact before I necessarily believe it. ;-> Thus far, I haven't found it > and John Gilhen, an expert herpetologist, says that it is not true. > > Cheers! > > Chris > > Christopher Majka - Atlantic Canada Coleoptera > http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/Environment/NHR/atlantic_coleoptera.html > c.majka@ns.sympatico.ca > > >
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