Road side injury (Graphic)

[KrokadilyanGuy3]

Sunday(14) afternoon, my girlfriend calls me up telling me she had a medical emergency and soon after gets cutoff (Cell phone.) So I was rudely awakened way too early (12:30pm) and had no idea what was going on. By the sound of her voice, I was guessing she stubbed her toe or something of the sort.

Well, she eventually pulls up into the drive lugging a large rubbermaid lid with this large cooter on it. The cooter was struck on the right hind corner by a large box truck and apparently died on the spot. 5 eggs were thrown from the animal (Which were collected and are in the deli cup) and a few others were destroyed. The cooter was a large 14" female. She brought the animal seeing if we couldn't save the eggs. The can was for size comparison



A blue rugged apartment floor isn't exactly a sci-lab but I figured it couldn't hurt being the eggs would eventually suffocate if they weren't removed. I grabbed the knife and got to it.



As you can see, the eggs are still within the membrane and would eventually cause suffocation if they weren't removed. I simply cut a portion of the membrane and elegantly pushed out the eggs.



Here are a few shots of the animal, sad circumstances.. (These shots were taken after the eggs were removed.)








I eventually pulled 14 eggs that looked pretty decent from her and left the obviously discolored and dead eggs alone. The remaining look promising and are being incubated at her house being she has far more experiences with artificial chelonian incubation. If and when they hatch we will contact a friend of mine in the Fish and Game and try to process a regulated release, if not we know a few private land owners that would be more than happy to help. Currently, a few look to be banding and the dents are no longer there.
Thanks for looking,
Zane