#not oklahoma

[findsthethings]

The shyest turtle. Even though it was a good distance from the shore, it would drop off its log if we got within 10 feet of the shoreline. 

[findsthethings]

Scorpions

This is a flat rock scorpion! It's native to southern Africa.

These are its eyes, which are located on the top of its head (you can see them in the top picture as well, they're about halfway down the head).  One of the guides at Insect Adventure said guests will sometimes accidentally pet the eyes when handling the scorpions (in their defense, it's certainly not an intuitive place to have eyes).

Insect Adventure also has an emperor scorpion, from western Africa and the largest scorpion species in the world.

(This one is actually dead. They have a dead one in a little box to show how it glows in ultraviolet light. Our guide switched it out with the live one, so I photographed the dead one instead.)

(Its eyes.)

There are somewhere between three and five species of scorpion that live in Oklahoma. Most only get to be a couple of inches long (these two specimen were maybe five or six inches each). I've never seen a wild scorpion, but I've heard several people say they've had problems with them in their homes.  This guide gives tips on how to discourage them from becoming your roommates (as well as basic information about common species). 

The flat rock scorpion was a pretty chill guy. I'm not sure how representative his personality is of the species. I didn't hold the emperor scorpion -- he moved fairly fast and I'm still a little jittery about holding a lot of these guys.