Chapter 7- The battle
The turtles liked the rain. They liked the sun. They liked to swim. Mostly, they liked to eat.
After some weeks of feeding them, the children noticed that most of the turtles were very careful near the pond. When Tracy was in the pond, the other turtles stayed away. When Tracy was out of water and sunning himself, the other turtles would go to drink or to swim.
Many times when they were fed, the turtles waited to eat. Tracy was always the first to eat. Timothy, the oldest turtle would eat too and then a few others would move towards the food to eat. Some turtles would eat only after Tracy moved away from the food.
It was a mystery and the kids wanted to solve it. So, Michael and Katie and Dad decided that when they fed the turtles next, they would hide behind a large water-maple tree and watch closely to what happened next.
All the turtles lifted their nose to the air and caught the scent of fresh food. Tracey also lifted his head high out of the pond. He marched up and out of the pond to the center of pen. There, Tiny had beaten him to the food and was gorging on banana and kale leaves. Tracy tilted his head to let one eye see what Tiny was doing. When he realizing that Tiny had beaten him to the food, he charge the tiny turtle and with a flick of his head, lifted the tiny turtle flipping him on his back. He continued to push the turtle to the side of the pen when Timothy turtle charge Tracy. Timothy was the oldest turtle. The many rings in the plates of his shell showed him to be over 40 years old. His face was dry and dusty. The color of his shell was no longer bright. He was not as big as Tracy was but he was strong.
The two turtles faced each other. Both stuck out their necks as far as they could. Tracy bobbed his head up and down. Timothy did the same. This went on over and over. Tracy seemed to tire first. Then he stopped his bobbing and turned around towards the pond. By this time, Tiny was back on his legs. Timothy marched up to the pile of food. Tracy stopped to look back, and then returned to the pond. Timothy had won the battle and Tiny continued to eat. From then on Tracy waited for Timothy to eat. Timothy ate with the rest of the turtles. Tracy would often wait until most of the other turtles had their fill of food.
How strange and wonderful are turtles! Who knew that these little creatures were so complicated and so smart?