Sammy the Snapper, on the Move

[kenmbz]

They are cute as babies, and I had Snapper stew once and it was pretty good.

My Uncle caught one when we were lake fishing once and tried to reel it into the boat.
That was pretty amusing , luckily the turtle finally snapped the line before it got my uncle

 

[2LaneCruzer]

This is a second hand story (no pun intended), but I thought there was a lesson there especially for a trot lie fisherman. Friend of mine was telling about him and one of his friends setting a trot line in one of our larger lakes. Seems his friend had a habit of not lifting the line completely out of the water when they came to a staging with a fish on; he would run his hand down the staging, under the water, and grab the lip of the fish and lift it over in to the boat.

Well, seems what appeared to be a fish, was actually a large snapping turtle. He ran his hand down the line, and yep...the turtle snapped on to his hand, between the thumb and first finger. They had to cut the turtle's head off and then the muscles around the jaw to get it loose, and apparently it did considerable damage to they guy's hand.

 

[Liquidsilver]

I have a lake with a beach area and my kids wont go near the water if they see a snapper, so we shoot them on sight. I'm friendly to most critters, but snappers, cottonmouths and poisonous spiders are a no go.

 

[Richard]

I've been going by this 'dry pond' every day. It's been raining so the pond is maybe 8" deep. I walk around the edges looking for him. Can't see the bottom where it's "deep" (HA)

Shovel is there waiting. I don't see him at all. I realize he might have moved on. I'll keep looking. The pond will soon be dry and he'll have no cover under which to hide other than burrowing in.

If he burrows in, how deep might he go? Would that disturbed area look much different than the areas next to it? Remember, this "pond" is otherwise nothing but grass on the flat bottom. Essentially flat with riding mower height grass.

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

How certain are you that he didn't just turn around and head back to the other pond when the dog commotion started?

 

[oosik]

I've read stories about snappers. Just glad the only turtles I have - painted box turtles.

 

[check]

We see snapping turtles in our (big) lake all the time. A big one once bumped into me while I was standing on the bottom near the dock. I don’t freak out about them, because they are not really aggressive while they’re in the water. But my daughter sure does! She saw one through her goggles while she was swimming, and she swears it was chasing her. So, for the next few swims I had to swim ahead of her with the kayak, “ hunting“ for snappers. We thought it was kind of funny, but she didn’t!

 

[the old grind]

A friend used to trap turtles with his Dad. There are supposedly 7 kinds of meat in a turtle, likely why many/most are used for soup. Doug said all seven were rubbery and unappealing but the liver was the best if beat the heck out of with a wine bottle to tenderize it. When it's half as thick and twice as wide it's ready for the frying pan. Thanks anyway.

A farmer on my 'block' came up my d'way with a mid-sized snapper ~8"x 10" carapace. He offered to drop it into my pond. Took me long enough to thin down the channel cats that feasted on goslings and ducklings. I didn't want a snapper that might have left here already coming back. Reptiles migrate when it rains, why they always find our ponds and puddles whether permanent or seasonal.

 

[Richard]

Evolution of my story:

I've looked & looked....the pond has dried up. I don't see ANY sign of him, nor do I see any signs of him digging in (not that I know what it might look like)

I don't know what he ended up doing but I'm presuming he left the big pond. I've not yet seen him behind the house in the recirculating pond (which is turned off so it's just a pool right now)

He could have waltzed down to the proper lake.... no idea.

 

[bunyip]

not a snapping turtle but this came out from under the house yrsterday, they do bite and pee on you if you pick them up, this one was about 5" long, they get to about 8".

 

[Panik]

Evolution of my story:

I've looked & looked....the pond has dried up. I don't see ANY sign of him, nor do I see any signs of him digging in (not that I know what it might look like)

I don't know what he ended up doing but I'm presuming he left the big pond. I've not yet seen him behind the house in the recirculating pond (which is turned off so it's just a pool right now)

He could have waltzed down to the proper lake.... no idea.

Richard - I handle and care for a couple snapping turtles at work, both an adult common and a baby alligator snapping turtle. In general they are very slow growing/long lived reptiles. They are able to commute a pretty long distance over land. With it getting towards fall I would hazard your little guy may well have headed down towards the proper lake.

Being ectotherms their body temperature is regulated by their environment and being in a larger body of water will help moderate the winter time drop in their temperature as compared to being in a smaller pond/pool.

While not exact by any means, I've always used the guideline that anything forward of the mid-line of their shell is a potential danger zone when handling a snapper. In any case, at 6" in shell diameter there's not a lot of space to safely grab on to, so picking him/her up with a shovel is a pretty reasonable idea if you don't have experience in handling them. Just be aware that the snapper may have a different opinion than yours about riding on a shovel and may dive off of it pretty quickly.

 

[Richard]

and may dive off of it pretty quickly.

Made me laugh.....I envisioned a turtle doing a swan dive off a shovel.

What I was going to do was use the shovel to transport him about 50-75 feet to the 8' wide loader bucket on my backhoe and drive him down there.

Couple reasons why:

1. Why not
2. I don't think I'd be able to keep him on the shovel for the moderate walk to the lake
3. He'd be pretty contained in the bucket and I'd want to think, not able to easily scamper out
4. I could add Snapping Turtle Transport to the "Why get a loader" thread..... oh, that thread may not exist? Well it would be good reason for me to start it then!

But first, I'd have to catch that bugger!

(I think he's left the area, I look for him twice a day as I walk by the dry pond walking the dogs....no sign of him)

 

[the old grind]

Thinkin' the turtle might have been spotted leaving the lake. They'll go downhill to find water. What direction a turtle is walking when discovered may give a clue to its intentions. I've spotted a few here in 20 yrs but none seemed to have left their mark so to speak. Top competing predators for turtles here are channel cats & raccoons.

 

[mag410]

Snapping turtles are surprisingly graceful in the water. This guy has been queuing up with the bluegills, for old bread, for almost 15 years.

 

[MossRoad]

Nice!

 

[Richard]

Snapping turtles are surprisingly graceful in the water.

This was odd.....but this brought back a memory that will bring a chuckle to some.

Background story: My wife used to be on a competitive synchronized swimming team. This was prior to me knowing her so it was either high school or college.

Point being, the gal is not afraid of the water and she's got some swimming chops.

20/25 years ago, we went down to the Bahama's. I was certified scuba, she had NO interest in that as the air regulator "blasting air down her throat" gave her the heebie jeebies..... so we only went snorkling. We both had mask, snorkel and flippers.

We were at a fairly desolate beach. There was a circular coral reef that acted like a breakwater. This created a HUGE "pond" that was maybe 10/15 feet deep and pretty calm. In a previous conversation, I had told her about me catching a barracuda in Mexico when I was young.... she wasn't sure what fish I was talking about.

We were splashing (swimming) around this lagoon for lack of better word.... working our way out to the reef but, not going to go on it because of the breaking waters. The water visibility here was "foggy", it wasn't as clear as you get while diving.

Suddenly, I saw the "cutest little fish".....it was a baby barracuda. This thing was literally maybe 8-10 inches long and very thin.... In fact, there were several of them together. I had never seen this....but immediately popped my head up to find her.... told her what was there and being curious, she/we both put our heads under again, breathing through the snorkels.

Much like your eyes getting accustomed to the dark.... our eyes got a bit acclimated from being above water to under....looking at them.

Then.... as we were watching the "cute little fishies", it dawned on us.... (me anyway) Don't Barracuda's tend to pack together? Even if not..... gee, I wonder where Mom & Dad are....

On the border of vision (like 10") all the sudden you could suddenly see that we were in a school of Barracuda.....and these were not babies. These were full grown adults. They were staring. Just staring at us, as we watched "their babies". They certainly have a aggressive look about them (and I've witnessed a Barracuda attack in the wild and seen how blindingly fast they are)

Let me go back to remind you that my wife is an accomplished swimmer. I mean to say that the Bit** (said lovingly) has some swimming chops AND NOW, she's outfitted with some swimming fins. She is convinced that they are going to have us for an appetizer.

Let me just say that she just about parted the waters themselves for the second time in mankind history as she absolutely got the "heck outta Dodge" under (I presume) the logic that you don't have to be the fastest.....as long as you are not the slowest.

Hmmmm.......

 

[Hay Dude]

Snapping turtles are real common here and are among our top of the feed chain with the coyote and the eagle. Caught this one while mowing near a lake.

 

[MossRoad]

Not a snapping turtle, but a cute little bugger.