What was that snapping turtle doing at the edge of a parking lot on Monroe Avenue in Shrewsbury last spring? The answer, or answers, emerged from the mud Wednesday afternoon.
That’s when a dozen newly hatched snapping turtles were found making their way across the gravel lot behind Mihlon Insurance.
Their eggs had apparently been laid by the turtle that business owner Dane Mihlon saw at the edge of the lot a few months ago. Usually wary of the biters, he’d left it alone because it wasn’t bothering anyone, he told redbankgreen.
The infant turtles “had literally just hatched, because it was raining and the rain hadn’t yet washed the dirt off them,” said Mihlon, who’s a councilman in Little Silver.
The babies were scooped up and put into a box to keep them from getting run over. Animal Control Officer Henry Perez arrived a few minutes later and took them down to Little Silver Creek, which runs behind the office building, where he released them.
“And swimming away they went,” Mihlon told redbankgreen. (Click to enlarge)
