When Meagan Doyle’s husband, Tom, began calling her one morning, she was confused. She had thought he was leaving for work, but on his way out of the garage, he accidentally stumbled into a mini emergency.
Littered across the couple’s driveway were dozens upon dozens of baby snapping turtles, all in need of a little assistance.
Meagan Doyle
“My first reaction was excitement,” Doyle told The Dodo. “I have always loved turtles, and seeing so many tiny babies was heartwarming and so cute!”
The excitement quickly turned into a little bit of panic as the couple began trying to gather up all of the babies and then realized just how many there actually were. At first, they thought the babies were just scattered over the driveway, but then they discovered they were also in the grass, on the back patio, and they even found a few in the garage.
Meagan Doyle
“We checked around the yard for a nest but couldn’t locate one,” Doyle said. “They were coming from every direction, it seemed, so it wasn’t clear where their initial starting point was.”
The couple live on the corner of a busy road and often see wildlife who have been hit by cars, and they wanted to make sure that didn’t happen to any of the baby turtles. They gathered them all up as best they could and placed them in a box, then carried the box to a nearby pond to set them free.
“When we got to the pond, we placed them into the mud at the water’s edge, and they immediately knew what to do,” Doyle said. “They headed into the water, with most of them swimming away and a few digging into the mud to hide.”
Meagan Doyle
The couple watched as the 30 or so babies they’d collected settled into their new home. Then they headed back to the house — and immediately found seven more babies waiting for them in the driveway. They later found six more, bringing the total to 43 baby snapping turtles rescued and rehomed.
It wasn’t how the couple had expected to start their day, but it quickly became the highlight.
“Snapping turtles are so cool and beautiful, it made me so happy to help them,” Doyle said.
