Epress.am News from Armenia
About 150 diamondback terrapins interrupted service Wednesday morning out of John F. Kennedy Airport in New York when they migrated across the runways from Jamaica Bay Park, which is just next door to the airport, reports TIME’s NewsFeed.
This phenomenon is not new to the airport. The turtles were in search of beaches to lay their eggs, which they do every year around this time. Airport staff were out on the tarmac since 6:45 am local time trying to clear the creatures from the runway, giving them a ride via pickup truck to their beaches.
“We are trying to help wildlife out a bit here,” said Ron Marsico, a spokesperson for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. “We built on the area where they were nesting for generations, so we feel incumbent to help them along the way.”
JetBlue decided to use the extra time to tweet what NewsFeed considers to be a great recap of the story: “JFK is experiencing delays as the airport clears turtles off the runway. #cantmakethisup (Check flight status at jetblue.com.).”
The 150 turtles then opened an account of their own at about 10 am local time by retweeting the JetBlue message.
@JFKTurtles has tweeted gems like, “Thanks for all the questions, but we are not the TMNT. Though we were raised by a talking rat. That’s normal, right?” and even replied to tweeps with such witty remarks as: “We are having a BBQ at the beach outside runway 4. Bring the family! “@katiecouric: So, @JFKTurtles, what are your plans for July 4th?””
According to Huffington Post (which has a slideshow of some of @JFKTurtles hilarious tweets), “What have we learned from all of this so far? That the space between event and meme has officially shrunk to zero.”