I had heard stories of very large turtles in Central Park, but since I’d never seen one thought they were a myth. These stories included one about a 75 pound turtle being moved from Turtle Pond to the Lake in 1997, and various tales of ducklings being eaten by large turtles.  These stories always seemed as plausible as the Loch Ness monster being real!

But they must be true, or at least partially.  On Sunday, I saw the largest fresh water turtle I’ve ever seen.  It was huge!  It was between 2 1/2 and 3 1/2 feet and slowly moved about a cove in the Lake called the Oven. 

I hope it gets looked after during the Lake’s renovation. Maybe it can go back to Turtle Pond, although I suspect we’d have fewer goslings and ducklings reaching adulthood.