Snappers

[Big Mike]

Every now and then you come across stuff that just captures your eye and fascinates you. I got to see this live for the first time about 2 years ago at St Mary's lake, this afternoon I saw it in our community pond. Two giant (35-45 pound) snapping turtles fighting for dominance of the lake. It's like watching Sumo wrestling in slo-mo. They assume a head to tail position and then begin a very slow death roll with each one trying to force the other other while clamping on a foot or the tail. After a minute or two they separate and then reengage. 20 minutes of non stop action and in the end the judges card had it all even with no winner. Kind of like watching the debate last night.

004.jpg005.jpg

This photo looked vaguely Chessie like but it was just the snappers taking a breather.

008.jpg

You may now go back to your normal diet of stripers and trout.

[FishingGeek]

Wow I've never seen that

[ronaultmtd]

Cool...

[Mark]

Mike,

Thank you for sharing.

I've seen big snapping turtles walking across land and even roads where I live in Pasadena. I saw a really big one literally stop traffic on MD 177.

I had heard that a lone snapping turtle on a journey over land and not close to water is a displaced male that has been evicted from its home waters by a larger/meaner turtle.

I had never seen them battle until your photos.

[EMSer]

Very cool, bud. Thanks for sharing that!

[Crotalus]

Awesome. I'm a big time reptile fan (my user name is a genus of rattlesnakes) so I really appreciate this post. Thanks for sharing.

[FishMoken]

I saw this happen on Seneca lake one time. It was late in the day no fish to be had. I herd some splashing down the bank, so I walked over and watched for 20min or so of the same thing you saw. It was amazing to watch! A memory I will have for the rest of my life. I have the video somewhere. If I find it I will post it back here. It is a truly amazing thing to see animals fight like that. Sometimes when the fish don't bite it's always great to have a "nature day"


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[suicyderider]

they were mating