U.S.- Biologists from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission (FWC) conducting a study of the tissue of captured fish were surprised to discover a live turtle in the stomach of one of them, although they managed to free it and release it back into the water the institution reported this Thursday.
Scientists were analyzing the tissue and characteristics of a series of largemouth bass caught in the Everglades wetland in a laboratory when they observed that the stomach of one of them began to move.
They then proceeded to open the fish’s stomach on the laboratory table and discovered something unexpected: a small live turtle that had swallowed a largemouth bass whole.
“Live turtles in a fish’s stomach are not something biologists normally find,” the FWC humorously said on social media.
After removing the turtle from the entrails of the fish, one of the biologists “walked to the edge of the water, laid it on the grass and watched the turtle enter the water and slowly walk away under the surface,” the FWC noted in its Facebook account.