Friday, December 26, 2008

Turtle closeup: Herman

I was going to write another Egypt post today (seriously, I am ridiculously behind) but I just don't have the energy. My parents' computer is SO SLOW and freezes up constantly - I seriously cannot use this thing without having a book handy - it's just too annoying to work with and I feel like I'm in danger of breaking the damn thing if I sit here too long. So I'll postpone the enforced shopping in Cairo till I get home and just post some adorable turtle pictures today. I took these five days ago - it was a feeding day and I wanted to get some pictures of Herman biting my fingertips. But of course he doesn't do anything when it's convenient. ;-) I got a couple of really good pictures though, even if only one was a bitey one. :-)

MY TWOLEGS - IT HAZ A FLAVUR ... !!
Nom nom nom nom ... !!

Check out this bottom one. Is he the cutest or what. :-) I love that shot. (I was leaning down towards him with the camera and he was stretching up to get a closer look at the strange shiny thing I was holding. When I let him at it he sniffed it and then bit it. :-) KAS says that he looks like E.T. in that picture. Yeah, I can see that. :-D

15 comments:

Paz said...

the second one is of his posterior I think I mentioned earlier about the pics of their bottoms ;P
he is a cute little chappy

Anonymous said...

Aww Herman is cute!

Fifty K said...

Very cute pics. I too thought of ET before even reading that someone else thought he looked like ET. I never thought of turtles as cute but yours IS!

Leisha Camden said...

I think a lot of people don't see a lot of potential for cuteness in reptiles when they have had no personal contact with them. As soon as one starts seeing them as individuals and realizing that they all have their own personalities, it does tend to open people's eyes. That's been my experience (my personal experience too) ... and certainly Herman does have a wonderful personality that even shines through in pictures; everybody thinks he's cute. :-)

Paz, he brought it on himself ... ! If he'd only stood still like I'd told him too, and not walked away out of the frame, he wouldn't have had to suffer the indignity of having pictures of his rear end posted on the intarwebs ... >:-)

Findabair said...

I've said it before and I'll say it again; he really is cute :)

I'm not sure your theory holds for every type of reptile; for myself at least I doubt I'd be able to think of a snake as cute even though I came to know it individually.

Anonymous said...

My friend has a little snake and I love him :) He has a beautiful pattern and is very curious and sweet. He adores sliding into my pockets to see what is there, and he loves to curl around my wrist and try to reach the closest thing, be it a table or chair of the couch.

Leisha Camden said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Leisha Camden said...

Aww, Findabair, listen to Margo! A tiny little baby snake, don't you think that could be cute?? :-)

Anonymous said...

Huh - a tiny little baby snake could probably be cute, actually :) As long as it's little, at least! There's a scariness factor to the big ones that I think would come in the way of seeing them as cute to me.

Leisha Camden said...

Yes, only the tiny little baby ones, of course. Anything small is always cute in comparison with something identical and large. Another thing on my list of stuff to blog about, actually. :-)

Anonymous said...

So not even you are too fond of big snakes, Leisha? :)

And the fact that small is always cuter than big - that's instinct surely, defend the young and all that?

Paz said...

so does the baby hoggorm have venom, what if he thinks ur feet hav noms?

Leisha Camden said...

Yes, Vipera berus are born (they bear live young, they don't lay eggs) with venom sacs ready for use. >:-) Superstition in this country has it that the young of the species are more venomous than the adults, but that's not true - in fact they have less venom - but since they're inexperienced hunters they don't have the skill yet of controlling their use of the venom, so they will normally inject everything they've got into you, whereas full grown specimens will only inject whatever amount is appropriate, ie in an encounter with a human normally quite a small amount, since all they can hope to achieve against us is to startle us and thus get the chance to make their escape. :-)

Anyway. Vipera berus is nowhere near as dangerous as a lot of people tend to think - they can make a healthy adult somewhat unwell, but it takes a very determined attack to kill even a child or a decrepit elderly person. And of course there's antidote. But that's wasted on a healthy adult human. They're really not that dangerous. If one of them bites my foot, I'll be uncomfortable for a while, but I won't be in any danger. :-)

So if whoever reads this ever comes across one in the wild: please don't kill it!!! :-)

Anonymous said...

heeey! whaat type of turtle do you have? i have one exactly the samee but cant find its type anywheree please help!

Leisha Camden said...

Herman is a Chinemys reevesii, which in English is called reeves turtle or three-keeled Chinese pond turtle. Hope that helps you. :-)