Catching Deadly Turtles

[BWSmith]

Intro:
OK, well maybe not deadly, but a few big and nasty ones none the less. I got called on to relocate some large snapping turtles from an 8 acre private lake. The story was that they were eating all their ducklings and goslings. Well, snapping turtles WILL take such prey, but it generally constitutes a pretty small percentage of their diet so I figured it was cats, dogs, coyotes, or hawks taking out the water fowl. In total 4 ducklings and 11 goslings had been taken this Spring. I tried to explain the more likely culprits until a couple neighbors actually saw the turtles take down a couple goslings in the water. Ok, well maybe it is the turtles. It would be a little strange considering the lake is slap full of fish, but okay. I saw a couple surface in the middle of the lake and confirmed that they were snapping turtles that looked to be about 2' carapace.

Then they tell me how the snappers are eating all of the Elephant Ear plants off the bank. Of course I figured it was just sliders taking the plants. I have heard of snappers taking some plant material, but these were stalking and "attacking" the plants. Naturally one of the neighbors had photographic evidence of this behavior. So I was able to confirm that they were large snapping turtles and that they were demonstrating stalking behavior and treating the plants like prey. Odd turtles.

I tried to convince them to let the turtles stay since they had been in that lake over 30 years (confirmed by another neighbor who had been there that long). But the neighbors had had enough of them killing the birds and one had begun taking pot shots at them. This is illegal and dangerous, but it didn't stop him. So I have no choice but to try to capture these guys and relocate them. So I got initial payment to cover materials and started building a trap. This was last weekend. By Sunday I had it built and headed out to the lake.

To be continued . . . . . . .

[telefrag]

good lord...................

[ChelsyC]

Darn kids... Swimming around in those snappers' pond... I'd eat 'em too!

Seriously though, good luck on relocating them and not losing a digit in the process.

[Brandon28]

I think it's awesome that they supported every single far-fetched statement with undeniable proof...I just have to chuckle and tip my hat.

They called the right guy for the job. Keep up the great work, BW!

[Icicle]

You don't happen to have any pictures of the trap you are building do you.

Will they find there way back to the same pond after relocating?
Good luck

[_Sam_]

oh, wow! those are some odd snappers, haha. good luck trapping them, such a shame they couldnt stay there...

make sure to update!

[BWSmith]

Part 2:
Sunday 06/08/08
So I finally got the trap built. I had contacted the Tortoise Trust and a few other people the previous week to get a good design to catch large snapping turtles. Most turtle traps are similar to minnow traps and just are not designed for such large and strong turtles. So I modified the materials and used 20" and 18" wire shelving material. The overall dimensions were 40" by 36" by 20" with a swing door. I reinforced the trap with PVC and the whole thing is held together with zip ties (god, is there anything they can't do?)

Here it is loaded in my Blazer.