No Sex Allowed

While photographing in the park today I ran across two Snapping Turtles that were in the act of mating in the far east corner of the Harlem Meer. As I pointed my 400mm lens at the pair a small crowd began to gather.

Five minutes later a Central Park Conservancy employee appeared carrying a broom and a stick and went down to the water's edge. Clearly his intent was to disrupt the amorous pair. Acting quickly I started yelling at the guy to leave the turtles alone and told him I would call Regina Alvarez (his boss) if he didn't stop. He apparently had never seen two turtles mating before and thought that something else was going on. Possibly a park patron had reported two turtles in distress.

The threat of calling his boss (and possibly the fact that I actually knew her name) was enough to get him to stop. I did call Regina (figuring she might be in the park since it was Earth Day) but did not reach her. I left a message in her voice mail.

The turtles continued for another fifteen or twenty minutes watched over by an ever expanding crowd. At one point there were close to fifty people watching the love struck pair.

Regina called me back later in the day and I explained the situation. She told me she was thinking of holding a class on wildlife behavior for her employees. Many times park patrons will spot some natural behavior (like snappers mating) and believe something bad is happening. They will go over to a park employee and the worker, not knowing any better, will attempt to remedy the situation.

I have seen this happen at Turtle Pond when the Red-eared Sliders come out to lay their eggs. They will crawl across the lawn looking for an appropriate place to deposit eggs and people (and park employees) will think there is something wrong with them and put them back in the water. The poor turtle, who was only doing what comes naturally, will have to crawl back out of the water again and repeat the process until her eggs are laid.

I was shocked by the lack of knowledge in the crowd that was watching the Snapping Turtles. One young lady in her mid-twenties asked me if they were frogs. When I asked her if she had taken biology in high school her answer was unprintable.