You crabby this morning? Wake up wrong??

Why're you snapping at me then? Sheesh!

Was up at the lake this weekend and found that the snapping turtles are out on dry land laying their eggs. Saw two of them.
This one I had my camera handy so I snapped a couple of pics. The shell was about 15" front to back and she weighed probably 20-25 lbs.
I remember as a kid we had two white ducks. They spent their days hanging out in the creek by our house. One day the drake didn't come home and we looked for him for 3 days. Finally found him in some weeds in the creek and he had a smaller one one of these guys hanging on his foot. Duck was about done in and soon enough would have lost the fight. Dad scooped them both up and had to cut the turtle's head off in order to get it to release it's bite on the duck. Once they get ahold of you they DO NOT let go.
We kept the drake penned up for about a week and then he was better.
Snapping turtles are rather prehistoric looking things.

I dropped the boat in Lake Kegonsa last weekend with the boys after hayin'. We saw an inordinate amount of snappers along the shore. Most of them were in the 12-14" range, but there was one sunning himself on a log that was in the realm of 20". I steered clear of him. I didn't want any piece of that action!!!

I found one in my pond the other day and he was a whopper. Thought that was it but have since seen bubbles from 2 more. Geez, if you had someone swimming and one of those got ahold of them, I don't even want to think about it.

Mark

Most likely laying eggs, though sometimes they move from somewhere else. Wild ones sure have that short fuse, but I have raised them from hatchlings and released when too big, about 3 years later, docile, peaceful animals, wild ones got into defense mode easily, the hand raised ones do not, well unless you step on him or something. They have a keen sense of smell and are lightning fast when something resembling food passes near them, other than that, they really don't do much except clean up dead carcasses in the water, and they do take waterfowl under. Ironically, all of the ones I have raised, (hobby) would gently take food from your hand, and if they get your finger, they know the difference. The worst thing besides an angry wild one, is the odor from the liquid they secrete from the sides of the carapace or plastron, hand raised ones just don't get angry unless you do something mean to them. So many people treat these guys with disrespect and abuse em cause they get so pi$$ed when disturbed, they are fun to watch in a clear pond, I worked in a quarry that draglined out a huge pond, crystal clear water with big ole bass and manhole cover size common snappers, from the stock pile, it was like looking into an aquarium.

They wander thru da yard every mid June, I call pa and he makes soup!

I've only seen 4 or 5 this spring, but there have been lots of places along the road (gravel) near the bridge where they've been laying eggs. 7 new spots Saturday morning alone.
I don't care for them much...they'll even go after a tractor if you happen upon one in the field.

We have them in our ponds and they come out at this time of year to lay eggs. They are very aggressive on land. I had one in a hayfield trying to attack the sicklebar mower as I was cutting. I lifted it over and by the time I got back around it had left. In the water they are not aggressive to people in my experience, but they will grab anything they think they can eat.
Zach

I grew up along a creek. My friend and I practically lived in that thing during the summer. One day we found a snapper, and being boys we were teasing it with sticks, making it snap. I got tired of it and started walking toward home. Got maybe 100 feet when my friend started screaming bloody murder. I turned to see what the racket was about and he was jumping around with the turtle latched onto his tennis shoe right at the big toe. When I finally quit laughing I found a stick and wedged it in the turtle's mouth but it took some shoving to get it to let go. All this time he kept screaming away. Then he went limping home. That must have been fifty years ago and I can still hear his screams echoing off the trees. Jim

When I was at home dad would find a large snapper and put it in a large horse tank and feed it ground feed for 2 weeks to get rid of the muddy taste. After the 2 weeks he would butcher it and mom would fry it or make soup. That was some darn good eating.

When I'se a kid, we were always told that if they bit you, they wouldn't let go until it thundered...........

About 20 years or so ago I was raking hay on a hill side field and a lower field already baled down by the pasture and creek. Every round I saw what I thought was a giant turtle, probably about 800 ft. away, finally got off and walked over to check it out, I'm not lying!! you could have set this guy on a 55 gallon barrel and he wouldn't have fallen in!!!!Just a massive snapper, his head was the size of a soft ball. I walked home and got the four kids in the pickup so they could have a look. He slowly went through the pasture and back to the creek, right through the cattle and went on his way. We back tracked him for a long ways cause the grass was all flat along the creek. He came out of a swamp by Lake Sarah. Any body know how long they live?? Have a good one!

Back in my rendering plant days I was running #2 cooker for the operator while he was on break, looked into the raw material pit and saw a turtle in the pit, I watched and he was alive. I fished him out and when the operator came back from lunch I wondered what I was going to do with the darn thing, and oh yes he was a little cranky. It was just a small turtle about 4-6" across the shell. I ended up taking him out by our storm water retention pond and gave him an underhand toss into the drink. About the time he hit the water I saw a streak of mud and bubbles shoot across the pond. I really didn't know that they could move that fast.

Was probably whats known as a Alligator Turtle used to catch them in the rivers here.They can be huge think they are on the Endangered species list now.They were good eating just like the regular Snappers.

EYEAYEAEEEE!! That's LIVE ACTION baby!!

Was just this morning hearing a story of a couple of turtles I believe they said Australia being together for 115 yrs. these of course were in a zoo but man what a long time.

We see them here in VA and they have been laying eggs. Most are dinner plate size. I saw one in the Rapp river a couple years ago that was very large, I thought it was an alligator snapper.
Has anyone ever been bitten by one while swimming? They seem very shy when in the water.

The National Aquarium, in Dubuque Iowa, has some
hughe ones!