Orange turtles pop up in Carolinas

MYRTLE BEACH, SC (AP) — More rusty reptiles are popping up in the Carolinas.

The Sun News of Myrtle Beach reports (http://bit.ly/2kNSmw4) a visitor to the Myrtlewood Golf Club’s Palmetto Course reported seeing several orange turtles while playing a round of golf Wednesday. Add that to the rust-colored alligators that already have been seen in Calabash, North Carolina – about 30 miles up the coast – and down in the Charleston area of South Carolina. Calabash residents named their pumpkin-colored gator “Donny.” Charleston-area residents joked that an orange alligator that turned up in a nearby pond had used too much self-tanning lotion. It’s a phenomenon for which officials have an explanation.

Officials with the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources say the coloration is likely due to a winter spent in a rusty steel culvert pipe.

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Information from: The Sun News, http://www.thesunnews.com/

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