Grendel

After many attempts to introduce more fish into the pond at Wareham, there had been good results with a few Coy given by a friend a few years back. These had both grown to about the 6 - 8 inch range, but also started to obviously multiply. This despite being left to pretty much fend for themselves - and overwintering outside.
I have been pretty unhappy that this year, almost all of them have disappeared. I had my suspicions as to why...

Click on ether image to see pretty much at life size.
The cage I used is intended to live trap * raccoons *. It is 8 inches wide, those bars are spaced one inch apart. That makes the turtle about 7 inches wide by about 9 inches long (shell size). The mouth opened to about 2 inches by 2 inches.
Snapping Turtles are basically top end predators once they get into this size range. They live pretty much forever, continuing to grow. (I have seen some the size of truck tires.)

Although the trapping and re-location of this turtle does remove the current threat, I have seen a second much smaller snapper in the pond. That one is about 3 inches in diameter, and so does not represent quite the same threat to the pond fish remaining. It may prove more difficult to catch however. Last year I caught one in the 4 inch range, which I placed back into the river that runs behind the property. This obviously is the source of the invasion.