Just in case you were wondering, here's how well a snapping turtle fits inside of a mini-excavator bucket.
Facebook user Stephen Ziegler posted a video showing just exactly what they dredged up while excavating his parent's pond recently, and it came out fighting. In fact, you just might get to see a snapping turtle get into a scrap with a backhoe!
Digging up the family pond will never be quite the same once you've dredged up one of these mean little suckers, but when you have to dig, you have to dig. It's just that when it sticks inside of the backhoe bucket, then you have to pull it out by hand, you know it's amongst the bigger ones you'll find in the United States.
Well, our attitude about that is: you first!
Watch as a snapper in the bucket turns into a turtle in the hand. Just count your fingers when it's all over!
"Now there's a turtle!" It's amazing that that big turtle fit so well inside of the bucket; even more so that it got scooped up without a scratch! You've got to watch out for those powerful jaws!
Common snappers, as well as alligator snapping turtles, have been known to prey on things like crayfish, small mammals, ducklings and small waterfowl, bullfrogs, the occasional piece of carrion, and of course they'll make a dent in any small pond's fish population. Basically, anything smaller than a bread basket that ventures through shallow water in snapper territory is running a risk...
These large turtles can shack up in just about any water body, and the snapping turtle populations across North America have held steady. There's no shortage, according to the video!
Congrats to those fellows for removing a big snapper and then letting it swim away to make, well, more snapping turtle hatchlings. Although, there's probably a better way to set a turtle trap!
Looking for a little more? Follow my webpage, or on Facebook and Twitter.
NEXT: HUMAN FINGER FOUND INSIDE ALLIGATOR SNAPPING TURTLE
WATCH
