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Love triumphs

This may be the happiest story I've read all week. It seems that a runway at JFK Airport in New York was shut down for over an hour today because of lovesick turtles.

Diamondback terrapins that live in the wetlands around the airport mate at this time of year and then the females seek a sandy area in which to lay their eggs. As it happens, that sandy area is on the other side of the runway from the wetlands where they live, and so, around this time every year, they begin their trek across the runway in order to get to the nesting site. And traffic on that runway comes to a screeching halt!

Today, more than a hundred of the turtles were crossing the runway. Wildlife personnel and airport staff picked many of them up and moved them to a sandy area where they could lay their eggs. But after the egg-laying, the turtles will likely be trying to get back to their wetlands which might mean another shutdown.

Anyway, I just think that it is really cool that all those people in a hurry have to slow down and wait for a "turtle crossing." Love and Mother Nature triumph over technology. For once.
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  1. Website Designer Saudi ArabiaJuly 1, 2011 at 2:31 AM

    Turtles in airport. Strange story. I hope I would have seen the view. I can imagine how exciting that would be.

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