Natural Curiosities

Q. Will an unprovoked snapping turtle bite a swimmer's fingers or toes? A snapping turtle lives under the dock at a state park where we camp every year. We often see it taking fish left on stringers at the dock. Recently, a child was dangling his fingers in the water and a turtle started swimming toward him. The child was quickly pulled out of the way. Could the turtle have been heading for the child's fingers?

Bryan Heinle
Woodbury

A. The people involved were wise to remove the child's fingers before the turtle did. Although snapping turtles typically do not attack people in the water, this one has become accustomed to easily obtaining food near the dock and might have mistaken the fingers for another meal, says DNR herpetologist Carol Hall. Even captive, nonaggressive turtles might try to bite a finger when being fed, thinking it's part of the meal.

Q. I have lived in rural Carver County 10 years. For seven or eight years, I hardly saw a rabbit. Then, all of a sudden, they appeared in my yard, eating under the bird feeders and in the young shrubs and garden. They stayed year-round. Then, just as suddenly, last August they were gone. Do you have any idea what happened to them?

Arlon Lande
Cologne

A. Rabbit populations tend to increase or decrease depending on habitat quality, food supply, reproductive success, disease, weather, and predation, says DNR area wildlife manager Bob Welsh. Most likely a new food supply (your bird feeders?) brought them into view. It's hard to say why you are not seeing them currently. The situation may be limited to your yard and not reflect a larger population decline. But even if it does, don't worry: Rabbits breed like ... rabbits, and they will repopulate quickly when conditions are favorable.

Q. Wild turkey numbers are exploding in Rice County around Nerstrand-Big Woods State Park. Could turkeys become a nuisance like Canada geese? Will the limits be raised?

Mary S. Jones
Nerstrand

A. Turkeys could become a problem in some places, although they are not likely to become as pesky as geese, says DNR farmland wildlife expert Bill Penning. Sometimes individual birds may become aggressive or irritate people by roosting on decks or gobbling close to houses. The DNR is establishing protocols for dealing with nuisance birds. As the turkey population grows, the DNR is increasing the number of hunting permits, issuing 4,264 more permits in 2005 than in 2004.

Q.I don't remember seeing gulls around the lakes when I was growing up. I live on a lake now, and they are everywhere. Are they moving into Minnesota, or was I just not looking when I was growing up?

Barb Schlag
Lake Elmo

A. Things have certainly changed since you grew up, especially in the Lake Elmo area. The combination of many more garbage-producing people and habitat loss creates the good life for opportunistic feeders such as raccoons, crows, and gulls.

Q. I live on Lake Roosevelt in Outing. Last April at least 50 loons gathered in the middle of the lake. We have never seen this before. Is this unusual? Why do they group together like that?

Mary Servis
Outing

A. These were likely migrating loons traveling together on their way from Florida to their Minnesota homes. Eventually the birds disperse to their separate territories for the summer season.

Q. Barn swallows insist on building their nests right above our living room window. We enjoy the birds and their babies, but can't take the mess anymore. Is there anything we can put on the house siding to discourage them from building there?

Celestine and Mary Barondeau
Onaka, S.D.

A. Tape plastic wrap over the area to keep the nest's mud base from sticking to your siding. You might also try placing a bird scare balloon (a balloon with eyelike circles that repels birds) above your window. If you like having barn swallows around (because they're great bug eaters), you can create an alternative site by building a nesting shelf on another part of your house before the birds arrive in spring. For shelf-building instructions, call the DNR.

Q. My daughter and I saw a female mallard on one side of a busy intersection waiting to cross the street to join a male on the other side. We tried to think of something we could do, but decided traffic was too unsafe for heroics. Several days later, we saw a flattened mallard there. Do mallards mate for life? Why didn't she try to fly over the traffic? What could I have done?

Alex Munholland
Minneapolis

A. You were absolutely correct in your actions that day-never risk your own safety to assist wildlife. It's anybody's guess why the hen didn't fly over the traffic, says DNR wildlife educator Jan Welsh. While wild animals are equipped with marvelous adaptations for survival, creative problem solving is not their strong suit. Mallards do not mate for life, so the drake probably quickly remated after the hen was killed.