I had a Snapping Turtle trapper stop by Monday. He wanted to put a trap in the pond overnight and then remove it the following day.

I told him that there are no Snapping Turtles in Bremer Pond.

This afternoon I was on doing a little fishing and low and behold, there was a large Snapping Turtle watching me as I drifted by.

They are so cute and affectionate looking, but I am concerned. Should I be?

I personally don't like them in my pond or on my plate. not the meat eating kind anyway.

I have dozens and dozens of large snappers in my 6.5 acre pond, most won't fit in a 5 gallon bucket. The only fish they would, or could catch are either dead already or dying. They do a great job of cleaning up the pond of decomposing critters.

I watched a Muskrat die (I think it was probably lead poisoning) and in less than a minute there were ripples from movement. A closer look thru a scope I just happened to be holding revealed a large snapper ripping off chunks of flesh.

I will say that cleaning one was by far the hardest of any animal that I've ever cleaned, but it made a great tasting turtle soup. There have been several past threads on snappers including one with a link to a much easier way to clean one than the way I did it. A search should bring up lots of information.

Good luck.

Dan

I think I will let the turtles live in our ponds. I fish mostly with artificial baits so they won't be a nuisance. I also think that Snappers add a dramatic touch because of their size and power.

Like Dan, I have dozens and dozens of snapping turtles in my 6-ish acre pond, and also like Dan, most won't fit in a 5-gallon bucket.

They don't bother me at all, and I don't think they do any damage to the "healthy" fish population.

Once again, nature takes care of Bremer Pond. I will let the turtles be.

I'm not fond of snapping turtles, one or two in our pond is OK, but a dozen is way to many. BTW, they do catch and eat a few fish. Painted turtles don't bother me at all.

http://www.crocodilehunter.com/our-anima...snapping_turtle

No disrespect intended Shorty, but every time I read about concerns of fish being preyed on by birds, turtles, etc, I have to wonder, aren't the vast majority of private ponds under-fished? It seems to me that if the predators are being attracted it's because of an abundance of fish. Don't predators normally target the weaker, less healthy individuals anyway?

It's true that I don't have my own pond yet so I don't speak from experience. I tend to look for the irony in life, like the possibility that pond managers are trying to eliminate wild animals that are actually helping them manage a better, healthier pond. I'm not saying that's true in every case, but sometimes? What percentage of ponds have stunted fish because the owners don't harvest enough?

No problem GW, I have had snappers steal BG off my fish stringers before right from under the boat, I also don't like to swim in the water while they are present too. Years ago I almost hit one while water skiing on the pond. Most of the time I will relocate them elsewhere if I can. I once had a huge female snapper crawl out of the bed of my pick up while driving down the road to relocate her, I had to stop and put her back in, we wern't far enough away yet.

With a "pink worm like" lure wiggling in their mouth, they probably take a good number of very healthy fish too. Now they probably do scavenge on the weaker, less healthy individuals once they are dead but I don't see snappers having the ability to chase down the weaker and less healthy fish.

My other concern is that my dogs are always swimming in the water which concerns me when there are lots of snappers present in the pond.

My 1/4 acre pond has dozens of painted turtles, but I have actually seen no snappers in the pond. I have seen them in the vicinity of the pond and I am sure that I have at least a couple in the pond. Of the ones I've seen, none were big enough to cause that much anxiety. If you have alligator snappers, thats a different story.

In my area, we have common snappers, alligator snappers, redear, and musk turtles.
I don't think 1-3 of each species per acre would hurt a healthy pond, and in fact may be more beneficial than harmful. Right now, I have about 20 redears, and they are "chelonia non-grata". Redears have a way of taking over a pond if you don't cap a few of them. They sure can eat a lot of feed pellets, too.

I think alligator and common snappers catch mostly young fish. I think the larger fish are wise to them, and can easily avoid them.

I can ID a box turtle easily because of the shell. What are the real obvious things to look for to ID snappers vs painted vs sliders. We have turtles, the largest seen so far has about 14" long shell. I keep thinkin' snappers have a long, thick tail...right?

I believe that in our area (Central Ontario)painted turtle are native,while red ear sliders are pet releases that don't breed because of the cold.I wouldn't be able to tell these apart at a distance.Our snappers (also called mud turtles here) are a whole different matter.
A large painted might go 5-6" front to back of the shell. They will also have red or yellow stripes on their head.You will see them sunning themselves on rocks or logs, sometimes 5 or 6 at once. Our snappers normally only leave the water to lay eggs (although I once saw one on a log).They have a lighter rough brown shell as opposed to the dark green/brown smooth shell of the painted. If you do drag one out of the water they will quite often have leeches on them and if you hold a stick in front of a captive snapper you will see how they get their name.
Whenever I find one on our driveway I transport it as we have kids, pets and water birds around that give me a lot more pleasure.....
A large painted turtle might draw blood but a 8" snapper could take a finger.