Comments on: The Hidden Menagerie: Personal Casebook (3 - Matt Kessen and the Lake of the Isles Mystery)

By: doug wilhide

doug wilhide — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 03:45:37 +0000

Just came across your posting. I appreciate your analysis… but I have to say I don’t think what we saw was a snapping turtle. I’ve seen them in the lake (along with extra large carp, muskrats, big loons and other critters ) and this was different. After all the hulabaloo we did a little research. Our creature could have been a small crocodile or a cayman or another related reptile. But I’m sticking with alligator for now. We did get a close-up view for several minutes. I tend to agree with your theory that someone dumped a pet in the lake. Haven’t seen anything like it since… though we have spotted a bald eagle and a red fox recently in the Uptown area.

As weird as seeing this thing was it paled by comparison with the media frenzy that followed. Must have been a really slow news day.
–dw

PS. Anduin (she goes by Andy), by the way, is still equally convinced.

By: blue

blue — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 21:18:11 +0000

Fascinating. Glencoe is actually only a couple of hours away from me, and if UWO researchers did in fact confirm the population, I expect they’re right. Interestingly enough my brand-new “Amphibians and Reptiles of Ontario” doesn’t mention them, even in the “Reptiles that may occur in Ontario” section.

By: Reverend Matt

Reverend Matt — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 13:50:10 +0000

The southeast US. According to Wikipedia, there is a population of them in southern Ontario, as it happens, but believe Wikipedia to the degree of your choosing.

By: blue

blue — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 13:26:27 +0000

Ah, see, I wasn’t sure whether they were actually a separate species or not. That’s good to know, thank you. Around here (S. Ontario) we have only one species, Chelydra serpentina, known as the “snapping turtle” or “common snapping turtle”, but I hear a lot of people talking about alligator snapping turtles. Where is the alligator snapping turtle found?

By: Reverend Matt

Reverend Matt — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 01:29:24 +0000

Pete: Yeah, I’ll do the Hodag. I love those Tall Tale critters.

Blue: Thanks for saying! That’s a very interesting sort of experience you’ve had, where this kind of thing is concerned. I must differ with you on one point, however: alligator snapping turtles are a different species than the ones we have here, larger and more terrifying still than the one I saw.

By: smoonn

smoonn — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 23:38:33 +0000

A cousin once claimed he’d seen the corpse of a bear in fields near my dad’s farm. I could tell it was a dead cow by the time we were 100 feet away from the thing. Sometimes, people just want it to be true.

By: blue

blue — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 22:17:30 +0000

Working as a nature interpreter leads me to hear about all sorts of strange and wonderful sightings. 90% of the time they are complete, but honest, mistakes. 9% of the time they are kids trying to top someone else’s story (”Oh yeah? Well someone flushed a frog down the toilet and it came up and it was TWO FEET LONG!”) and 1% of the time they’re actually true. Bizarre things do happen. I always try to keep an open mind, because I’ve had a few too-strange-to-be-true sightings myself.

Snappers are often called “alligator snapping turtles” and with good reason. I wouldn’t want to tangle with either, frankly. Awesome animals.

By: Pete

Pete — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 15:18:05 +0000

You make a good point: it’s one thing to be a skeptic, but to dismiss someone as a kook with no evidence at all isn’t any better.

In a totally unrelated matter, having spent some time in Wisconsin as a kid, I would like to request future mention of the Rhinelander Hodag.