Snapping turtles

dbarjacres · #1 08/14/12, 07:45 PM

Anyone on here a "snapper specialist"? besides on cooking them, lol!

We have a murky shallow pond at the end of our property. We saw about 2 weeks ago there was a BIG snapper in there. Well today when I took the dogs for a run with the ATV, there were two BIG snappers (like the shells are at least pizza pan size if not more), fighting in the middle of the pond. Like, severly fighting, as in when you see alligators or crocs fighting on TV, chomping on each other, going for the throat, hanging on and rolling, appearing to try to drown their opponent. The underside of their necks are all bloody. When I got to the pond it was 5:20, I just ran down there and 2+ hrs later they are still fighting. The pond was already worked up when I got down there so have no idea how long already fighting.

My husband loves seeing turtles so I tore back home and got some cool videos with my smartphone but can't figure out how to get them off phone. Got some neat pics too.

So, will they fight to the death?

plowjockey · #2 08/14/12, 07:56 PM

My guess is until one , cries "uncle", like most other animals.

that would be pretty cool to see.

We have big ones in our area ponds, that migrate back and forth.

Recently a "smaller" one was crossing the road and I wad concerned he/she would be run over.

I was a bit squeamish (wimp)about grabbing it by the tail, so I flipped it one it's back, with a windshield scraper and scooted it over the the shoulder, like a hockey puck.

Dinosaurs live on in snapping turtles.

vicker · #3 08/14/12, 08:00 PM

Animals don't often fight to the death, but it does happen.

dbarjacres · #4 08/14/12, 08:01 PM

Yes, they definately are "old school", lol! I always rescue painters but these that "bite the hand that rescue", I leave to DH.

English Oliver · #5 08/14/12, 08:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dbarjacres

Yes, they definately are "old school", lol! I always rescue painters but these that "bite the hand that rescue", I leave to DH.

They don't bite, just wade out and feel around for them and grab them by the tail.
Snapping turtles - Homesteading Questions

dbarjacres · #6 08/14/12, 08:32 PM

don't bite! ever put a stick in front of one?

Are you the Indiana version of Turtle Man? (Animal Planet show) lol

wolffeathers · #7 08/14/12, 08:37 PM

(What? Nobody is going to do it? Guess I'll do the terrible deed)

Whoo! That's live action right thar! *giggle*

Bearfootfarm · #8 08/14/12, 08:40 PM

I suspect what you saw wasn't fighting at all, but MATING instead:

Quote:

We tend to think of turtles as sluggish and passive, but the mating ritual is an active aquatic ballet. I leaned the fly rod into a wild rose bush, got out the binoculars and settled down to watch.
The two humps paddled nearer to one another, then became still. The heads and outspread feet were clearly visible beneath the surface. Each turtle appeared entranced with the other. Their snouts were only inches apart, yet they remained motionless, gazing, apparently, into one another's small eyes.

Dozens of times after one of these "gazing" sessions, one of the turtles would expel a stream of bubbles from its hook-jawed snout. Each time the bubbles appeared the other turtle responded with some form of contact. Most often, the reacting turtle would bite violently at the neck or shell of the other. Other times, it would attempt to climb over its partner, pushing it beneath the water.

Read more: Outdoors: Snapping turtle courtship unusual shell game - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

dbarjacres · #9 08/14/12, 08:50 PM

I considered some kind of rough mating too (ever see a jack donkey breed - nasty boys they are!), but isn't it an odd time of year? The turtles will be settling in for a long winters nap in 2 months.

p.s. ya forgot the "yi yi yi" part lol! That man looks like a hillbilly, lives like a hillbilly, but sure seems to love life. If he is truly that happy by simple pleasures, I'm truly jealous of him.

Bearfootfarm · #10 08/15/12, 12:23 AM

Quote:

isn't it an odd time of year?

They can breed any time, and the female can store the sperm for months waiting for the right conditions to lay eggs:

Quote:

Snappers, I later learned, have no defined mating season. They court whenever conditions are right, generally influenced by the gradually, and variably, warming weather rather than by the predictable day length as in some species.

Quote:

Accommodating meteorological variability, the female can store the male's semen within herself for months, delaying fertilization until the optimum time.

Delayed fertilization also helps snapping turtle populations spread. A female can travel overland to a new pond, marsh or lake where no other snappers live, initiate fertilization without the now absent male, then lay her 30 to 60 eggs in a newly colonized habitat.

Read more: Outdoors: Snapping turtle courtship unusual shell game - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Paquebot · #11 08/15/12, 12:26 AM

Yes, male snappers do fight for supremacy in a pond and it's not something that's over in a few minutes. This one went for 3½ hours.

Martin

HOTW · #12 08/15/12, 06:31 AM

It may have been a new ale trying to muscle into new territory. My oarents lake has some massive Snappers, the biggest of all is Methusela she is one big female! One of the locals thinks she is over 100 years old from th esize an dplus some they trapped a male and he was smaller than her by far! Saying they dont bite?? yeah right that male was trying to get the guy who trapped him and drug him up to my parents house yelling for an axe!! He was too big for the trap!

English Oliver · #13 08/15/12, 08:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dbarjacres

don't bite! ever put a stick in front of one?

Are you the Indiana version of Turtle Man? (Animal Planet show) lol

Naw, I'm just a normal guy around here. Turtle hunting is a tradition here and I have caught, by hand, several thousand over the last 50 years and only been bit once and that was on the ear.

Noodling for snappers ain’t for the squeamish (video of brave noodlers included) | Dubois County Free Press

Like the article says, it ain't the turtles you need to be afraid of, it is grabbing ahold of a muskrat.

"O"

fishhead · #14 08/15/12, 09:41 AM

Large snappers will decapitate smaller snappers.

BethW · #15 08/15/12, 10:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by English Oliver

only been bit once and that was on the ear.

On the ear? Might be time to stop kissing snappers.

Copperhead · #16 08/15/12, 11:53 AM

My father in law is famous (notorious?) for baiting a snapper with a pair of channel lock pliers. Once the turtle and the pliers have a firm grip on each other, he pulls his fillet knife and slices off the neck. Problem solved!

Now, about those recipes? Turtle soup, Frog legs, and Crawdad are STILL on my bucket list!

English Oliver · #17 08/15/12, 12:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dbarjacres

The turtles will be settling in for a long winters nap in 2 months.

I catch turtles year round, not just in the summer. In the winter and there is a couple inches of clear ice on the water turtles will come up to the edge or to air pockets. If you ease up to them and quickly chop through the ice you can grab them before they go down. They move real slow in cold water. I have taken a few cold baths this way though.

"O"

English Oliver · #18 08/15/12, 12:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Copperhead

My father in law is famous (notorious?) for baiting a snapper with a pair of channel lock pliers. Once the turtle and the pliers have a firm grip on each other, he pulls his fillet knife and slices off the neck. Problem solved!

Now, about those recipes? Turtle soup, Frog legs, and Crawdad are STILL on my bucket list!

There are as many recipes for turtle soup as there are flies. You just have to find a recipe for a good vegetable soup you like and add or substitute turtle for the meat. I eat some form of turtle at least twice a week year round. Fried turtle is real good but I never fry a turtle that weighs over 12 pounds, they go into soup. The turtle soup around here is usually spicy, and has a lot of vegetables chopped up small. Most of the restaurants around here and all of the church picnics used to have real turtle soup on their menu's but most (not all) now serve a mock turtle soup. Turtle soup should be like a thick Burgoo.

"O"

Paquebot · #19 08/15/12, 02:07 PM

I've hatched out hundreds of snappers over the years and kept them over winter for release in the spring. At a very early age, the baby females develop a fear of their brothers. Despite ample food available, many of the females lost the tips of their tails to the males. By 6 months, a male would establish one corner for himself and no other turtle could come close. They are mean right out of the egg. Females, on the other hand, were easily tamed and quickly learned to come to my fingers for food rather than as food. In every clutch there seemed to be at least one female who understood affection and kindness and I often hated to turn her loose into such an environment where the odds were highly stacked against her survival. Never felt that way for any male.

Martin

dbarjacres · #20 08/15/12, 02:17 PM

Well sad outcome for one of the old boys ..... floating on the side if the pond dead. He was floating there this early am moving his head a bit but dead now 7 hrs later. No way to get him out as its a 3 ft drop on that side to 20" of water over 24+" of muck and leeches and the neighbors sewer that runs into that creek 1/4 mile away.