Gruesome, but true?

WARNING: The content of this thread may be a little gruesome for some people, so if you are distressed by discussion of dead bodies, please skip this.

I recently read some accounts about life in and around New Orleans in the 1800's. One of the things mentioned was anytime someone drowned in a lake or bayous leading into the lake, when they retrieved the bodies they typically had to "knock the crabs and the turtles off the body" as they pulled it out of the water.
I wasn't really surprised about the crabs- I know they eat decaying things, and they don't care if it's a dead fish or a dead human. But I hadn't thought about the turtles eating dead bodies. I think of them eating fish.
Thoughts?

Snapping turtles sure. And many others are opportunistic scavengers.
My own Redfoot have been caught eating a rat. Cycle of life stuff.
Dead fish. Dead human. Same to a hungry animal.
Only different to us humans.

I'm not sure how I'd do if I dropped dead in my tortoise pen....
They already try to bite my toes off if I just stand in there too long.

ZEROPILOT said:

Snapping turtles sure. And many others are opportunistic scavengers.
My own Redfoot have been caught eating a rat. Cycle of life stuff.
Dead fish. Dead human. Same to a hungry animal.
Only different to us humans.

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Ick.
I believe you, but...ICK!!!

This happened with some monitor lizards too. A guy had some large nile monitors living loose in his apartment. He had a severe heart attack and died slumped against a wall sitting on the floor. They found him several days later and his lizards had been snacking on his remains.

Goes back to one of my sayings: Meat is meat.

Maybe more urban legend than true. Before diving and scuba gear, dead bodies were recovered from bodies of water by using a tethered snapping turtle.

For sure, without a doubt one breeding program for one of the larger softshell turtles on the Ganges was intended to clear out all the partially cremated bodies burned and dumped into the river. Unfortunately those same turtles were largely poached and eaten - by people. Karma

Moozillion said:

WARNING: turtles eating dead bodies

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~ Back in the mid 90's i was involved in working a death case at a large deep popular lake in the area called Lee Cypress. This is located in the Everglades City area and is a very poor fishing community. This lake was the result of a large rock quarry being dredged for many years. The locals would always fish and get the turtles, very common and a plentiful food source. A man was reported missing named "Buck", last seen to be fishing in this lake. A very thorough search resulted in us never locating Buck. Several days went by and his body was discovered floating on the edge of the lake. We retrieved the body and he was half eaten by snapping turtles. The cause of death was determined to be of natural causes. Never forget that case, basically meat is meat for snapping turtles, what ever kind it may be.

Don't know about humans but I came outside one day and caught my RF eating a dead bird.

Toddrickfl1 said:

Don't know about humans but I came outside one day and caught my RF eating a dead bird.

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If a Redfoot could, it would eat just about anything. They are vacuum cleaners on land.
Snappers are the same. But under water.
Nasty to think about.
But completely natural.

So interesting! Well, I can tell you about a Red Eared Slider that would lie in wait in her pond in my back yard for any pigeon that ducked its head too far into the water to drink. Just like a crocodile, she would grab it and drag it under the water, drown it and partially devour it.
My Redfoots love pinkie mice. My Jamaican pond turtle also. I have never let them try my toes.

Tom said:

This happened with some monitor lizards too. A guy had some large nile monitors living loose in his apartment. He had a severe heart attack and died slumped against a wall sitting on the floor. They found him several days later and his lizards had been snacking on his remains.

Goes back to one of my sayings: Meat is meat.

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That was my sister in laws cousin. Ick.

Erik Elvis said:

That was my sister in laws cousin. Ick.

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Anyone here seen the movie "Alive"? Now we are getting a bit closer to the bone, eh??? Hmmmmm.

Never trust your tortoises either

This happened with my Russian. I caught him one night stealing MY labeled food from the fridge. Some nerve he has.