Don't throw coins near turtles:
Veterinarians laboured for seven hours to remove 915 coins weighing five kilogrammes from a sea turtle suffering chronic stomach ache. [...] Last month, Om Sin, Thai for piggy bank, was sent to the faculty from the Sea Turtle Conservation Centre of the Royal Thai Navy in Sattahip district in Chonburi last month after it barely swam. A CT scan at the university shocked vets when they saw the mound of coins. [...] According to Thai belief, throwing coins into a turtle pond would stop bad luck.
Also at Washington Post, NPR, Smithsonian, and The Guardian (video).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 07 2017, @02:23PM (2 children)
More fun to train the turtles to recover the coins and then spit them out into a container. I'll bet they are smart enough to do this with a clever training routine -- swap a coin for something tasty. First thought, start with a coin on a fishing line. This site, http://www.anapsid.org/tamingvh.html [anapsid.org] claims turtles like to be stroked on their belly.
It might be easier to train a few turtles than to re-train the whole superstitious human population?
(Score: 2) by Aiwendil on Tuesday March 07 2017, @03:12PM
For some reason this caused my mind to conjure up an image of turtles starting to mugging each other and soon end up dressed as pimps whilst waging gang wars.
A more likeky outcome, howver, is turtles starting to mug people.
Either way I'm in favour of and look forward to this
(Score: 1) by butthurt on Wednesday March 08 2017, @01:22AM
"People don’t realise that picking up something you have found amounts to a theft."
http://www.news.com.au/finance/money/costs/woman-charged-with-theft-after-pocketing-a-20-note-she-found-in-a-shop/news-story/6cd35d4e7e18cbb107ec65baf4dbd392 [news.com.au]