Rose Cottage Ltd

If you happened to read my post a few days ago, you’ll know that large snapping turtles are in the lake on my property. If they hadn’t proven to be deadly to the little goslings that also live here, I’d probably not have paid them much attention at all. Instead, I’ve managed to trap and relocate 3 of them so far, but as you’ll see from the images below, there is work remaining to be done.

I noticed some strange splashing going on at the far end of the lake on Tuesday and went, camera in hand, to investigate. The sight of these two male turtles fighting was something to see. The goal or the “win” seems to be to get your opponent upside down underwater and hold him there until he drowns.

Look at the size of those claws!

I should have taken my Flip video with me to record the rather horrible sounds of this fight – which did seem prehistoric. Hissing and snapping of their jaws, and if turtles can scream – these did. This was not “play.” Each of these turtles weighs somewhere near 30 pounds.

This shot reminds me of the last scene of one of the “Friday the 13th” movies where good old “Jason” comes up from under the water on that lake and grabs the heroine of the movie out of the boat! The one turtle getting ready to pounce on the other in this image was definitely the aggressor of this battle.

I was in the boat by this last shot and having watched this battle for nearly 15 minutes decided to break it up. I hit the water around them with the paddle until one finally broke free of the other and headed for deeper water. I’m guessing there is a large female turtle also on this lake – that is probably the cause of this skirmish.

Looks like more chicken legs in the turtle trap for the next several weeks…

+ More on snapping turtles

+ Some interesting turtle research in South Florida

+ Good info about trapping and relocating turtles and, how to build your own turtle trap

Every year, once the geese nesting on the lake leave the nest with their goslings, thoughts turn to “monster” snapping turtles living in the property’s lake. I see them surfacing down at the deep end of the lake and their shells look like garbage can lids in size!

You can read about the first turtle experience here, about what these turtles will happily eat, and why I am at all concerned about moving them out of my lake here.

Today’s episode started with realizing a turtle was in the trap:

Now that he, or she, is in, how to get it out? The turtle has a shell with sharp edges and also has some rather talon-like claws that do tend to get caught in the net.

About 10 minutes later, we almost have the turtle free of the “ties that bind.” The turtle will go into this 30-gallon trashcan for its journey to a larger body of water.

Here’s a little look at size for this particular catch. The human hands seen in the picture above are of an adult male. The trashcan is a 30-gallon size. Estimated weight of this turtle is around 25 lbs so this is a much smaller turtle than the first we removed from the lake in 2008.

If you need to buy a turtle trap, a link to our turtle trap source is in the earlier post. If you’re going to trap and remove a turtle from your lake or pond, please be careful…you could easily lose a finger or toe otherwise. Also please do not transport a turtle to another private lake – you’ll only be creating problems for others.

I normally try to let the wildlife that exists on my property do its own thing. Other than chasing squirrels out of my bird feeders, I figure Mother Nature knows best. But there is one instance where I do interfere – when it comes to the showdown between goslings and the (at least) one monster snapping turtle I have in my lake.

Here are the potential victims:

And here is the aggressor:

Two turtles were captured, moved, and released in 2010. No sightings were made in 2011, but I saw one floating on top of the water in the sun about a month ago – right off the shoreline from a goose nest. If I can humanely catch it and remove it – off it will go. These turtles have an amazing life span, and the ability to survive in a hostile world that one still has to admire. I’m guessing the weight of the individuals already removed from the lake at somewhere around 60 pounds – each.

However, there is a huge state lake nearby that should provide them plenty of better feeding opportunities than to feast on the little goslings. One goose soul of the initial 2012 six goslings has already gone missing and their lives are filled with enough natural and human predators already. Wish me, and the goslings luck. I’ve had the trap in the lake for over a week and so far, have not lured the turtle inside the trap. Every time I see the 2012 goose family head down to the deeper end of the lake, I cringe.

More on my turtle-trapping episode of 2010 in my post entitled, “Monster Turtles.” The 2010 turtles, which were moved to a huge lake about 15 miles from here, had been caught – using a chicken thigh as bait, in the turtle trap. You can find info on where I bought the trap and a picture of it out of the water here.

It is probably a good thing one can’t see everything that lives in a lake or pond. You would probably find that wading or swimming or even fishing, is not always as appealing as you once thought.

Once and awhile you find out the hard way what lurks below the surface…in this case Snapping Turtles – big ones!!

I was enjoying a day around the lake late last Summer. Geese with their 10 week-old goslings were having a nice shower under the fountain and all was well with my world. Suddenly, the 12 or so geese started screeching and all took off for the lake’s edge – save one of the goslings. This poor goose was valiantly trying to make it to shore but appeared to be held nearly immobile by some unseen force from below the water.

While he or she made all effort to reach the shore, I hot-footed it around the lake to see if I could assist. The gosling and I reached the same spot on the shore at the same time and to my total surprise, I saw what appeared to be a very large shell in the water holding one of the legs of the goose extended backwards- keeping him from getting out of the water.

It was one of these:

Well, that’s the way I’d seen it prior to the attack. Not too aggressive…didn’t seem to bother the fish…no harm, no foul. I knew there was at least one large turtle living in the lake. He visited often in the evenings during fish feeding time. That is their food in the water floating around him.

Unfortunately, he also looks like this:

Well, to be without the net would be more to his liking and out of the trap and back in the lake may have improved his disposition. After the attack on the goose I was not willing to find out.

Fortunately, during that attack I was at the right place at the right time and was able to give the turtle a hard enough smack on his shell to make him release the goose – who left with a bloody foot – but without permanent injury.

However, this created a real tough decision regarding lake management. I have a turtle who has potentially lived in this lake for most of the fifteen years the lake has been in existence. The turtle could possibly live another fifteen to twenty years. At the same time, there have been nesting geese on the lake for the past three seasons. This means every May I get to enjoy seeing these:

The problem is I’m afraid the turtle may enjoy them as well.

What to do?

First thing was to research and procure a turtle trap of some sort. This is a turtle that weighs somewhere around 40 pounds and has the same circumference as a 20 gallon trash can. Finding something appropriate and up to the task took a bit of work. It appeared a “Turtle Hoop Net” was going to be the best bet and fortunately for me, Heinsohn’s Country Store had just the thing for around $130.00.

Below is a photo of it stretched out and prior to insertion in the lake:

Getting the net stretched out properly and pegged to the bottom of the lake was a little more difficult. Once that was accomplished I admit to being a bit skeptical that any turtle would ever consider getting himself involved with all that netting. Never doubt a turtle’s desire to get to a piece of chicken bait though. Within 2 days of placing the net in the water – BINGO! – we had our suspect in custody – and boy was he pissed!!

He snapped, he hissed, he rocked back and forth like some miniature bulldozer…he gave me the “evil eye”…the thing looked like some sort of prehistoric demon. He had to go.

Fortunately, my property is fairly close to a 12,500 lake and that was chosen as his new home. Normally, I am against moving an animal from its native environment but I can’t imagine that he will not thrive in his new location. Now that it is nearly hatching time again for the lake’s geese, I am preparing the 2009 (and now 2010), launch of the turtle net.

Two days after catching the first turtle, a second of equal size was captured and driven in comfort to the same larger lake. I like to think they met up again and did a “High 5″ or whatever turtles do…

Who says rural living is boring?