Looking to help turtle with hook stuck in mouth

On Sept. 17, North Country Wild Care posted on Facebook asking people to keep an eye out for a turtle with a fishing hook through its mouth at Crandall Park in Glens Falls.

“Possibly a Map Turtle, but need to get closer to know for sure,” the post said.

“One of our members has set up a basking trap which will be monitored, but if anyone spots her, we would love to hear where she’s been seen in case she moves to a different area of the pond.”

An update to the post on Sept. 18 reported “lots of sightings but no luck in catching.”

The post noted, “Nearly all native species of turtles are in decline in NYS, and we are hoping we can help this one!”

North Country Wild Care recommends calling its wildlife hotline at 964-6740 if you spot the turtle.

As of Tuesday, Sept. 24, the turtle had not been located.

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“I wish there was an easy way to catch turtles,” says Kay Besheer of Wilton, who is heading up efforts to catch and treat the turtle.

She’s a licensed wildlife rehabilitator with North Country Wild Care whose focus is turtles.

Ms. Besheer told The Chronicle, “It would shock people. On land, they are so fast. Turtles are sprightly. And in the water — forget it. They’re like little bullets.”

She said tortoises and larger snap turtles are the ones who earn the reputation for being slow, even “lumbering.”

This Crandall Pond turtle “looks like a female,” Ms. Besheer said, “it’s large,” at about 10 inches long, “with a very large hook that appears to be through her mouth and maybe also a nostril.”

She said, “It has a preferred log in the pond,” near the back side.

Ms. Besheer said the basking trap is a platform that gives way to a mesh basket underneath that won’t harm the turtle, but it can’t escape.

“We’ve caught some painted turtles, so we know they are comfortable with the trap,” said Ms. Besheer.

However, this hooked turtle “appears to be very skittish and resists approach. She’s pretty social, out and about almost daily.
“It looks like someone did hook it and cut the line off.”

Ms. Besheer says, “It would have been better to cut the line, put it in a box and call us. No one’s going to fault them,” as it’s a fairly common occurrence for turtles to go for baited hooks, same as fish.”

Her concern: “If it goes into hibernation, in the cold with an an open active wound, it’s not a good situation.”

Ice crystals can form in the wound and burst the skin, she said. An active infection during hibernation is “not good.”

“As soon as possible, we’d like to get the hook out and get her on antibiotics.”

Ms. Besheer said she checks the trap every other day. She’ll next try a net on a telescoping pole to try and catch it, but “this turtle is very good at disappearing in the murky bottom.”

Ms. Besheer is researching other kinds of passive no-harm traps.

“I still have one or two other tricks up my sleeve,” she says. She’ll keep us posted.

— Cathy DeDe & Ben Westcott

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