Enormous alligator snapping turtle rescued from drainage culvert

Something that caught a Baton Rouge, Louisiana resident’s eye led to the rescue of an enormous alligator snapping turtle. WAFB 9 News reports that Travis Lewis was outside his home when he saw what he thought was a log in a nearby canal. Lewis told the station, “So, I took a closer look and it was a big ole turtle, so I jumped up screaming and hollering for Martin to come help me.”

The rescued alligator snapping turtle (WAFB)

Lewis’ loud cries for help made his friend, Martin LeBlanc, think he was being attacked. When LeBlanc got a look at what Lewis was screaming about, he saw the huge turtle with a head the size of a football and thought, “I’m from Pierre Part. I was thinking dinner, no lie. ”

Travis Lewis and Martin LeBlanc (WAFB)

The turtle was in a predicament. "He was wedged in a culvert and one of our friends actually climbed in the culvert and pulled the turtle out. He was wedged in real tight," said LeBlanc. The group was able to free the nearly four-foot-long alligator snapping turtle 45 minutes later and knew to stay clear of the animal’s business end. "Because it latches on to you, it's not going to let go. It's almost like an alligator. Once it latches on to you, it's going to take whatever it bites with it," Lewis explained.

The rescued alligator snapping turtle (WAFB)

The men plan on releasing the turtle once they identify a spot where it can roam free. So, this big guy is safe from LeBlanc’s turtle soup pot.

The culvert where Travis Lewis first spotted the turtle. (WAFB)

Video and more info: WAFB

Animalsalligator snapping turtleTravis Lewis

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Texas senior, 18, bags 800-pound record alligator

HOUSTON (AP) — A Houston-area high school senior has bagged a 14-foot, 800 pound alligator — the heaviest ever certified in Texas — on his first alligator hunt.

Texas Parks and Wildlife Department officials say 18-year-old Braxton Bielski bagged the record gator last week at Choke Canyon State Park, about 90 miles south of San Antonio.

The agency says in a statement that Braxton shot the giant reptile after hooking it on a line using raw chicken as bait.

Bielski's father, Troy Bielski, won a Parks and Wildlife drawing for a five-day permit to hunt in the Daughtry Wildlife Management Area. The Houston police officer says his son had been dreaming of hunting alligators for years.

Parks and Wildlife says the alligator was between 30 and 50 years old.

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Deputy Sheriff fights alligator from middle school

Jessica McGregor and the alligator has caught (Sheriff's Office Lake County)

Florida Sheriff's Deputy took matters into their own hands last week when was spotted a seven-foot alligator trying to break through the fence of a local middle school.

Jessica McGregor, Deputy Sheriff of Lake County, a 29-year-old mother of two, has answered the call, fashioned a noose from a 30 foot rope and "saw the would-be attacker," the Orlando Sentinel reports.

"I got it turned around, and began to spin and jump and flop," McGregor told the newspaper. "Once he got tired, he just laid there and wiggled his tail. I threw the rope above him and fall down with your knees behind the front legs. He jerked around a bit and just gave up.

The Congressman, who said she and her brother used to catch alligators for fun, explained that she didn't want to wait the two hours estimated for the professional trapper arrive.

"I lived in Lake County my entire life," McGregor told the newspaper. "Back in the day, you've got these things come on your land, and just took 'em and 'em threw back into the nearest drinker."

Not a big deal.

While alligator encounters are common in the State, attacks are less and even then are rarely fatal. Still, it can be frightening. Last summer, two teenagers in Florida were attacked by alligators in a span of five days. One of them lost the bottom half of his right arm in the near-fatal encounter.

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