A woman from Massachusetts has gone viral after revealing that a turtle randomly chose to temporarily settle on a pile of compost they were keeping in their yard, but they did not expect what she chose to do there.

In a video shared on TikTok earlier in June under the username @cortneytayla, which features the turtle climbing up the pile of dirt, the poster explains: "When the turtle decided to make a home for itself in our pile of compost for the garden we accepted the fate and gave it some food thinking maybe it just needed a place to sleep for the night.

"This morning the turtle was gone but we noticed a lot of birds and animals around the pile of dirt, and that's when we realized... [Croissant] Boston (what my 3-year-old named her) used our dirt to lay her eggs."

After researching what to do, the woman gently placed all the 38 eggs into a container, working with a paintbrush to avoid damaging the shells and disturbing the embryos.

In the caption, the poster added that she's currently keeping the eggs in plastic containers with some holes drilled at the bottom and on the sides, covered about 5 inches below the surface with the same dirt they were in.

"I have them in the garage slightly covered with the lid making sure the soil says moist and the temp in the garage is around 80 degrees. Hoping that once they hatch we can relocate them to a local pond but until then we are worried that other animals will attempt to eat the eggs since we have a lot of hawks in the area."

According to pet experts at PetKeen, the best way to take care of turtle eggs is to put them in a reptile incubator or an aquarium with a lighted hood.

The eggs must stay in the same position as they were laid, and the best way to avoid damaging them is by marking the shells so that you know which side is up, and then it's all a waiting game until they hatch.

The eggs may not hatch all at once, and only about 7 percent of them usually do. Because the embryos are so fragile, it's crucial that you do not try to help during hatching, as it may be fatal for them.

The video quickly went viral on social media, getting viewers from across TikTok. It has so far received over 3.3 million views and 263,800 likes on the platform.

One user, Aimlessbookworm, commented: "Croissant Boston abandoned her kids and said bye guys you take care of them it's hot turtle summer."

Zillow said: "We've heard of the cat distribution system, now we're onto turtles."

SMANGE added: "That's a snapping turla. Ur about to brood 38 dinosaurs."

Newsweek reached out to cortneytayla for comment via TikTok comments. We couldn't verify the details of the case.

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