Today our neighbors came over and asked us if we knew what to do about snapping turtles. Apparently they had one living in their yard that was a potential threat to their dog, Pal. We didn't know what to do, but we headed over there to check it out.
It was the largest wild turtle I have ever seen. His shell was the diameter off a basketball, his head was as big as a 330ml bottle of Perrier, and his tail had 1/2 inch spikes along the top. I keep calling it a he, but it could be a girl, I guess. We tried to herd it towards a marshy area, and it moved fast. I wish I had my camera. But this is a good example.
Any ideas on how to handle a bully snapping turtle?
Reading Now: The Stories of Eva Luna by Isabel Allende.
7 years ago
6 comments:
Funny, I've been having wildlife problems myself today: bees!
Welcome to the blogosphere! I was talking to a real estate agent in Tulsa who had a big turtle in his pond that was eating his baby ducks. So he took care of the turtle with a shotgun. :-0
Oh my...when we first had ducks landing on the pond early this spring, we were worried about the painted turtles. I had read that when ducklings fall out of the tree nests, they are easy prey for the turtles. It turned out all the ducks were just resting up for the remainder of their trip north.
Aren't you a librarian? "Any ideas on how to handle a bully snapping turtle?" sounds an awful lot like a reference question to me...
;-)
Hi Sunshine! Greetings from DeKalb, IL! Thanks for telling me about your blog!
About your turtle problem, adult painted turtles are mainly vegetarians, they will not eat baby ducks. The most meat they might eat are a dead fish or an earthworm here or there, but they usually like to feast on algae.
The big snapping turtle may have been a female looking to lay eggs. July is pretty late in the season, but being as far north as Duluth, that may be typical. I would say just keep your distance, she won't be up and about out of the water too often. We turtle biologists say it's pretty much a myth that they eat ducks...but if anyone's seen it happen I would be happy to find out!
I know this canine that is part Cocker Spaniel, part Poodle, part something else...not quite sure. You can rent him if you like and will more than likely take care of that turtle problem. His hunting skills have included spyders, crows(http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/images/40478000/jpg/_40478225_us-crow.jpg), squirrels(http://www.scripting.com/images/archiveScriptingCom/2004/03/24/snowSquirrel.jpg), possums(http://condor.depaul.edu/~gandrus/jpg/pics/possum.jpg)...plus he can knock down little kids if he is in the mood.
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