Clemson Students Wants to Save Turtles From Becoming Roadkill

One day when I was a kid, we were taking a ride around the Navy base where I grew up.

The ride was uneventful until Mom suddenly hollered for my Dad to pull over.

Mom got out of the car and ran over to some nearby railroad tracks. She bent down for a second, and when she stood up, she was holding a turtle. She'd spotted the little guy trying to cross the tracks and he was having trouble traversing the rails, so she'd decided to give him a hand.

Her assist probably would have earned her some applause from Clemson University student Nathan Weaver, if he'd been around to see it.

The Associated Press reports that Weaver is trying to figure out how to help turtles cross the road, in an effort to increase the box turtle population.

Turtles, it seems, are just as threatened by cars as they are by their natural predators.

Weaver's project involves placing a fake turtle in roadways and seeing how many people avoid hitting it and how many go out of their way to hit it.

Do you try to avoid turtles if you see them in the roadway?

Read the full story on Weaver's project on the Anderson Independent Mail's site here.