Pond thawed and I seen my first turtle

[RobAmy]

We'll it's been a few days of warm weather and the pond thawed fully. All the fish are swimming about vs the cold teen temps and frozen pond. This morning I saw something on a rock and walked over it is a baby snapping turtle. About 1 1/2 inches. It's the first turtle ever at the new pond. I am not sure if it will live. It will be getting real cold again. Going back in the teens tomorrow night. It survived this far so we will see. Good fun

 

[RobAmy]

Sorry the pic is upside down

 

[sissy]

They hav built in instinct .When I was a kid we had the canal down in front of our house and we had lots of snapping turtles .We even had 1 kill 1 of our bantam chickens .I was on the ride on mower when it happened and got to it to late .They can get nasty .Will hiss at a person too .Will also kill and eat fish .At least the ones at my parents house did .

 

[j.w]

Cool you got a picture of him and looks so cute when little. Think CE here gets those snappers in her pond in Illinois and she immediately transports them elsewhere. Guess she does not want her toes snipped off when in there cleaning the pond. I imagine they would nibble your fish up to bits too

 

[RobAmy]

Snappers can be nasty for sure. At this size it does not seem so. We will see how it plays out. If to much of a problem we can bring him to a pond near our house. Most likely where it came from. I have move a couple out of the road over the years. I never heard of one getting a chicken, wowee

 

[j.w]

Must have been a dumb chicken or should I say dumber as it's not like a snapper can run fast like a chicken. Prolly the old saying of why did the chicken get too close to the snapper or you know cross the road deal? I think the answer would be something like,cuz it's just a dumb cluck

 

[RobAmy]

If it had the moves like your chicken then that turtle would have been out of luck LOL

 

[sissy]

We had the small chickens bantams and these were very big snapping turtles .We would find them in the garden laying eggs .The canal had gone stagnant for a long time because The opening under the bridge was clogged to the big canal that was the Raritan canal off Easton Avenue in Somerset NJ .It was the canal that always flooded South Bound Brook

 

[j.w]

So sissy did the chickens just walk up to the snappers not knowing they weren't just a big rock and then Whamo they were chomped?

 

[JBtheExplorer]

They can get nasty .Will hiss at a person too.

They aren't that bad. They are hunters, so they will go after animals, including fish. Hissing is a defense mechanism of many turtles meant to scare threats away. Snappers do, of course, have a much more powerful bite than other turtles and can even bite a finger off, so it's best to stay away from larger ones. When not threatened or hunting, they're actually very peaceful creatures. They wont intentionally attack people, and try to stay away from humans, but this guy was definitely trying to get my camera this past June.







Also, very cool RobAmy! If you decide you'd rather not have it around, I'd suggest relocating it this Spring before it gets too big.