Yikes! Snapping Turtle!
Found this guy in one of our goat pens this morning. Snapping turtles are like little alligators--bite first, and no questions later. They don't even bother to pull their heads in their shells. He was at least 12 inches across. My brother had one almost rip his kneecap off years ago when he tried to pick it up by its tail.
I came out later, and didn't see him. I hope he didn't head to our pond, or we could be missing some ducks. I definitely don't want the dogs getting their nosey noses torn off.
= new reply since forum marked as read
...at our deck and was surprised to see a very large snapping turtle on it. It looked like a small dinosaur. I figured some dumb teenagers had probably put it up there as a prank.
Not so. When I went out to take a closer look, I was shocked to find claw marks on the stairs.
I never knew turtles could do stairs. 
Yes, that damn thing is dangerous.
I'm not a fan of big turtles - they've eaten all the baby ducks on my neighborhood's little lake. 
On edit:
Got a shotgun? Go hunting. Save your ducks and perhaps even your puppers' noses.
yes......while swimming in a lake. They cannot retract their heads into their shell like other turtles so snapping is their defense. I knew not to try to pull him away, they won't let go until they are good and ready. I drummed my fingers lightly on his eyes until he got tired of it and let go. Ear was sore but healed in a few days (yeah I googled to make sure I wasn't going to get some sort of turtle plague). 
never liked the idea of being part of the food chain
I did swim in the North Sea when I was a kid in England 
...ear left to talk about!
They apparently inhabited the "river" where the swan boats ran and the park, first and foremost, was afraid of lawsuits - even though those of us who drove those boats made a prepared speech telling passengers to keep their "hands and arms" out of the water. I heard via the grapevine that they'd managed to capture a snapping turtle and they planned to have the "sheriff" of the western part of the park come down and shoot it. 
So I immediately went to my boss and begged for the life of the turtle and he immediately put it in a box, poked some holes in the box and handed it to me saying "you want the turtle, he's yours!" (My boss liked me, said I was "reliable." ) So I called my Dad, another animal lover, and he said he knew the perfect place to let the turtle go.
And that happened several times that summer, they'd capture a turtle, my boss would call me, and I'd call my Dad and we'd transport the turtle to safer ground. Granted, my rescued turtles were a lot smaller than that one, one was so small that I was worried about letting him go, but my Dad knew a place where they congregated, so that's where we left them.
BTW, that particular spot was adjacent to the local Country Club Beach - where my Dad was a member. And he was not a golfer, he and my mother frequented the beach. I told that story at his funeral...
