Cottage Q&A
QUESTIONWe feel our new cottage is as close to heaven on earth as we can get. However, we are concerned about an incident that happened last July during our first summer there. My son placed a baited minnow trap at the water's edge and a huge snapping turtle was attracted to the bait. A worker at the cottage said the turtle had come ashore about six weeks earlier to lay her eggs in the sand near our fire pit. We are wondering if the turtle was waiting for her young to hatch. As I am now nervous about swimming in the water, can you also tell us if a snapper will attack a swimmer or wader?
ANSWER
Ron Brooks, a zoology professor at the University of Guelph who has studied snapping turtles extensively in Algonquin Park, says he has never heard of anyone being bitten by a snapping turtle while swimming. "However, it's conceivable that if fish are frequently parked off a dock, snapping turtles will get used to that and come to feed," he says. Not only will snappers help themselves to stringers of fish left dangling off a dock, there is also evidence that they can get confused between dangling fish and dabbling toes. An example of one such case of mistaken identity is described in a letter we received from Bill Mononen of Cambridge, Ont., who was bitten by a snapping turtle when he dangled his feet off the end of a dock at a fishing camp. (See "Letters," Nov./Dec. 1991.)
Though the turtle at your cottage poses little danger to swimmers, she will be less likely to hang around the dock if you move your fish, bait, and fish-cleaning station somewhere else. Be assured that snapping turtles do not return for their young after they lay their eggs. However, these creatures of habit will sometimes travel long distances (up to 10 km) to return to nesting sites, so you may see her again near your fire pit this June or July. (For a more complete discussion of snapping turtles and their habits, see "Talking Turtle," March 1991.)
* Published in the May 1994 issue of Cottage Life
