Amos Moses

This is one of my favorite country songs, and I first heard it when my family and I moved down to Florida in 1974. The song was released in 1970, and had been a big hit at the time. In the 1970s, I heard Amos Moses a few times on the radio and never heard the name of the song. I thought the song was called "Alligator Man" but it is "Amos Moses" by Jerry Reed. In the 1970s, Jerry Reed had several hit songs, such as "When You're Hot You're Hot" and "She Got the Goldmine and I Got the Shaft." Primus covered the Amos Moses song, but Jerry Reed sounds a lot more country. Amos Moses is a funny song about the Louisiana Bayou, but to me the lyrics capture the smart-aleck attitude of the 1970s era and also the innocence and naivete of the country folks who never imagined what would happen when the land developers took the swamps of Florida (and Louisiana) and turned them into shopping centers and condominiums. There was a time when you could drive around anywhere in South Florida and find swampland, lots of water, reptiles, turtles, wild birds, gulls, herons, and alligators. The canals had alligators and lots of turtles of all kinds, including snapping turtles. Local kids would swim in the canals and lakes and knew where the alligators were swimming. We used to catch turtles and swim next to water moccasins and coral snakes. If you did not bother the critters, they never bothered you or me or anyone else that I knew. I hope that there are still parts of Florida where there is lots of swampland and open water with turtles and alligators and lots of fish and houses laid out with big yards and very little traffic and over-population.

Releasing Turtles into the Wild

Have you ever seen any animals kept in overcrowded conditions at a Pet Shop?? Most Pet Shops are very conscientious and try very hard to treat animals in a humane manner.

However, there are exceptions to every rule. But what can I do about it? A complaint to the Health Department might get some action. On the other hand, the Pet Store may be in compliance anyhow, or the overcrowded or unsanitary condition may have been resolved by the time it is investigated.

So if you could afford it, would you love to buy all the animals in stock and free them? For captive-born creatures like hamsters, snakes, dogs, cats, etc. it would be extremely deadly for the animals if they were just released at the local park.

But what about critters like Iguanas and Turtles?? You would think that if a bunch of large pet store stock turtles that were indiginous to the area were released back into a local lake that there could be no damage to the critters or the people?

It is a romantic notion to what to free animals that seem to be neglected, however most creatures lose their ability to compete in the wild once they have been living in a small aquarium or cage for a few months.

Once they lose a step, catching wild fish or other food may almost be impossible. So instead of liberating them from neglect, they become tourists in a wild environment where they do not belong. Either they slowly starve, or they get sick or they are eaten by faster and stronger wild creatures. So releasing our reptile friends back into the wild is not a responsible option.

The other possible repercussion is that turtles and other reptiles can pick up illnesses and parasites from other turtles and reptiles that they were penned together with. The cross-infecting of species is a major problem caused by the Pet Trade.

So if you release formerly captive reptiles into the wild, and they were infected with an illness that is native to another type of turtle or reptile, then that infection can spread to the local indiginous species of turtles or reptiles causing what amounts to be a plague. Therefore releasing captive animals is not good because the cure can be much worse than the problem.

The least likely possible repercussion is that you are caught in the act by a Game Warden or Forest Ranger. In most localities it is illegal to release any captive animal into the wild. So if you ever see a bunch of critters that you want to save from neglectful treatment, the only thing you can do is make space at your home and adopt one or two if you are sure that you can support them and are dedicated to giving them quality attention, care, housing, and food.

Hibernating Turtles

People who have turtles in their backyard ponds or in tanks or aquariums that are outside often find that their turtles literally run away from home. Sometimes a turtle will try to escape extreme heat or cold conditions by digging into the soil in your backyard.

Unless you live close to a canal or other body of water, it is doubtful that a turtle will be able to find a way to get to a safe body of water where it can live.

Additionally, many domesticated turtles are no longer able to hunt or scavenge for their food. These domesticated turtles are also not used to avoiding predatory fish, ducks, gulls, alligators, or people.

So if your turtle takes off one day, make every reasonable effort to try and find it. If you do not live near any body of water, the turtle probably dug itself into the ground somewhere in your yard or nearby.

If you do not find the turtle and take the turtle out of the ground wash it off and put it back in the tank, it will die if left in the standard backyard soil. More than likely you will find them some time later while planting something, and the turtle will be rotting away (shell only) a few inches under the top soil.

The standard backyard is not a good place for turtles to hibernate. When they do this in nature, they are supposed to do it by the banks of their ponds, canals, rivers, etc. These bodies of water have compacted, muddy soil on the banks near the water and that soil stays wet and hard and keeps out ants. This kind of muddy soil gets softer when it rains hard (usually Spring showers) and that is usually when the hibernating turtles wake up from winter hibernation.

The backyard soil is nothing like that, and it is full of all kinds of predatory insects, and it is not cool and moist. So before your turtle dehydrates to death and/or is eaten by red ants or other critters, try to find it in your backyard.

If you see your turtles are having trouble dealing with extreme heat or cold weather, you should use your common sense and bring the turtles indoors for a while so that they can acclimate themselves to the normal climate conditions inside your home. This will lower the stress that their biological systems have been dealing with outside.

When turtles are in the wild, they can swim or walk away from a harsh environment and seek a better place or hibernate or otherwise fend for themselves. When they are in an enclosed area, the turtles are relying on their owner to control the environment and to make sure it is healthy for the turtles.