Woman Has Yard Full of Snapping Turtles

[Leonardo Mystic]

I thought this was a cute story, and would be appreciated by certain reptile lovers.

"JAMESTOWN, N.D. (AP) -- Earlier this summer, Betty Kratzke noticed that something was disturbing the ground near the flowers that line her driveway. Solving the mystery this week proved to be a snap - when baby snapping turtles started crawling around her yard."

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...MPLATE=DEFAULT

[Raph's Girl]

Tokka! What did you do now?!

Seriously tho.. 44 snappers?! Wow! I hope they watched their fingers and toes! Yeoch!

[ThirdMarioBro]

I love Turtles, but if I woke up and found a yard full of snappers chasing me to the car, I'd get the shotgun out of the closet and go apesh*t.

[Raph's Girl]

Originally Posted by ThirdMarioBro

I love Turtles, but if I woke up and found a yard full of snappers chasing me to the car, I'd get the shotgun out of the closet and go apesh*t.

And they WILL chase you. My uncle Don got chased by one while he was swimming in a pond. Fortunatly he got out of the water in time.

[Buslady]

AWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And there were alot of hatchlings! She had a whole collection.
Common Snappers I think. How lucky they were to have babies in their yard! I would love to have a whole gang of hatchlings pop out of my yard.

Originally Posted by ThirdMarioBro

I love Turtles, but if I woke up and found a yard full of snappers chasing me to the car, I'd get the shotgun out of the closet and go apesh*t.

oh come on, even brand new baby snappers? They're harmless.


as a side note:

Snappers are not aggressive as most people think. They are the way they are for defense. They're extremely cautious, it's better to have your defense up before you're screwed. If they feel they're in danger, you bet that big trap of theirs is gonna be open.
And another note...they should never be held by the tail, why so many idiots suspend them by their tails confounds me. You don't hang a dog or cat that way, a snapper's tail is delicate; it won't break off but doing that can cause them serious nerve damage or worse. If you see someone doing that, tell them you're hurting it and could cause him to become paralyzed.

[Katie]

yeah...they'd rather run away.

I had a pretty big girl for a common snapper in my parking lot this past spring during migration time. it had just rained and she was using the creek accross teh lot as a means of scenery change. I wanted to get a picture or two, but she kept running under parked cars

I finally did get a few really good shots then she and I went our separate ways. Pretty little thing. only tried to bite me once, but I was well out of range.


Edit:

[Storm Wolf]

I had a pet snapping turtle once...best experience ever...only got bitten once when I was feeding him and wasn't paying attention. I eventually didn't have the room for him, as he quickly went from the size of a half dollar coin to the size of my hand in a few short months...so I gave him to a friend of mine with a big backyard pond.

I used to love watching him "hunt" when we'd put feeder fish in his tank. They aren't much to look at when they get older, but boy are they cute when they are little! I'd love to watch little baby snappers hatch in my yard...I'd just wonder why they were so far away from water...

[Spike Spiegel]

That's a lot of turtles...if snapping turtles are that aggressive, I would just stay away from that lady's yard.

[Drtooth]

Tmnt fansite + random odd news item concerning turtles = obvious candidate for posting.

[Buslady]

Originally Posted by Drtooth

Tmnt fansite + random odd news item concerning turtles = obvious candidate for posting.

And a cheap reason for me to go yapping boring turtle factoids hehee...



Most turtles are omnivores.
Some are total carnivores, like snappers.
All tortoises are vegetarians.
No turtle cares for their eggs except Burmese mountains tortoises who guard the nest for a week or two.
No turtle bears live babies.
Turtle boys are the only reptile with one...*ahem*...tool.
1 out of 1000 sea turtle babies makes it to adulthood.





NICE Snapper Katie I bet that was a real treat.

[Drtooth]

I have a question.... if a group of superhero mutants weren't turtles, would you care about them the same way? I would, myslef, since I like reptiles. Gators/Crocks are my favorite actually.

[Buslady]

Originally Posted by Drtooth

I have a question.... if a group of superhero mutants weren't turtles, would you care about them the same way? I would, myslef, since I like reptiles. Gators/Crocks are my favorite actually.

Good question.
I love all reptiles, as you know, they possibly would work and still be cute as a crocodilian but I dunno if I'd wanna kiss one Those teeth.
I don't think they'd works as snakes. Lizards they would and be cute as well.
But they picked the right reptile, turtles are just adorable

I think they could work as a mammalian based animal, and be popular and all that..but reptiles are so much cuter to me. And the joke's not there of a typically velocity challenged reptile performing lighting fast skills of a ninja, if they were mammalian. (i loved don's "velocity challenged" line)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Aardvarks...

Nah doesnt work.

[Katie]

personally, I'm a herpetoculturist anyway. I raise bearded dragons and two species of rhacodactyl geckos. I'm not into keeping turtles or other reptiles or anything other than photo safaris any time I catch something interesting.

Honestly, once this generation goes I will probably get out of the business. the Rhacodactyls used to fund my little hobby, but they have begun to be pretty common in the trade so the price has come down enough (and responsible buyers are becoming harder to find) that the feasibility of continuing my operation is looking pretty bad.

[Janus Prospero]

BABIES!!! THEY'RE BABIES!!! AAARRRHHHHHH!!!!

[Drtooth]

Originally Posted by Buslady

Good question.
I love all reptiles, as you know, they possibly would work and still be cute as a crocodilian but I dunno if I'd wanna kiss one Those teeth.
I don't think they'd works as snakes. Lizards they would and be cute as well.
But they picked the right reptile, turtles are just adorable

Though i will say the TMNT did help them to become a favorite reptile. I also love gorillas, if we're talking mammals.

[Buslady]

Originally Posted by Katie

personally, I'm a herpetoculturist anyway. I raise bearded dragons and two species of rhacodactyl geckos. I'm not into keeping turtles or other reptiles or anything other than photo safaris any time I catch something interesting.

Honestly, once this generation goes I will probably get out of the business. the Rhacodactyls used to fund my little hobby, but they have begun to be pretty common in the trade so the price has come down enough (and responsible buyers are becoming harder to find) that the feasibility of continuing my operation is looking pretty bad.

Rhaco whato geckos? Are those Leopards? They're common. Saw LOTS of yellow ones at the reptile show yesterday. Crazy morphs.

My turtles are on the uncommon side so I can still get a decent price if i sold one.

[Katie]

Rhacodactylus ciliatus (eyelash or crested geckos) are my bread and butter. I raise a fire morph that is hard to come by and my first breeders came from Philippe deVosjoli (I probably just murdered his last name, but you know who I'm talking about, right?) these guys are getting pretty common in the regular morphs and MALES are all over the place. I breed for females teperature wise, but lately I have no market for those gals either.

I also have R. auriculatus (gargoyle geckos), a VERY rare black and red stripe and a white and black stripe. But they won't throw any red ones. these guys are uncommon, but finding people who know what to do with them is hard, so I don't breed them often.

and an R Leachianus...(New Caledonian Giant Gecko) But he is a batchelor, as he cost me $1500 and a girlfriend would be double that. He's just cool to play with.

they're cool little guys. I don't have any good pics right now. gimme a few days and I might.