Snapping Turtle

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Facts and Knowledge:

Habits:  Snapping turtles spend most of their time underwater, lying at the bottom of shallow freshwater lakes, ponds, and slow moving rivers.  In the northern part of their range, snappers hibernate underwater, during cold weather.  Snappers become extremely aggressive when confronted on land, and attack is their best method of defense.  When threatened, they raise their bodies and lunge fiercely at the intruder.

Breeding: Mating usually takes place in the water.  In early summer 25 to 50 eggs are laid and covered in a hole dug on land.  Hatching usually takes 2 to 3 months, but eggs laid late in the season may not hatch until the weather warms the following spring.  As soon as they have hatched, baby snappers make their way down to the water where they will spend their first few years.  they grown quickly and often reach 6 inches in shell length within their first year.  Males are fully grown and ready to breed at 3 to 5 years; females take longer to mature.

Food & Hunting:  Snappers prey on almost anything they can catch and overpower.  they eat fish, frogs, salamanders, smaller turtles, water snakes, baby alligators, and small aquatic mammals.  Large prey is seized is the snappers jaws and then torn to pieces.  Smaller prey is swallowed whole.  Snappers also scavenge for food wand will feed on the carcass of any dead animal found in the water.  Young snappers feed on small fish, tadpoles, and aquatic insects.

Key Facts: Sizes, Weight, breeding, lifestyle, related Species
Length: Shell, up to 16 in., overall length up to 32 in. Males are slightly smaller.
Height: Up to 50 lbs

Breeding:
Sexual Maturity: Males, 3 to 5 years, Females, 4 to 6 years
Mating Season: Summer
Incubation: 2  to 3 months. Eggs laid late may not hatch until spring.
No of Eggs: About 24

Lifestyle:
Habit: Solitary,
Diet:  Fish, small birds and mammals, frogs, salamanders, water snakes, baby turtles.
Life span: Up to 60 years

Related Species: The alligator snapper, Macrochelys temminki and the Florida snapper are close relatives.
Distribution: Shallow freshwater lakes, ponds, and rivers along the eastern side of North America from southern Canada down into Central America and northwestern South America
Conservation: Man is the snapping turtles main enemy, killing it for food and sport. Still, their numbers remain fairy constant.

Features of Giant Tortoise:
Shell: The snapping turtles shell is small and does not cover its head, limbs, and tail.
Front limbs: Strong, sharp claws on the front limbs rip prey into pieces when it is too large to be swallowed whole.
Head: Covered with thick, horny scales, the turtles head cannot be retracted into the shell.
Mouth: Instead of teeth, the snappers powerful jaws are equipped with a hooked, razor sharp beak for slicing easily through flesh and bones of fish, water birds, amphibians, and reptiles.

Did you know?
Snappers were once used to find dead bodies in lakes. Tethered to a rope, the snapper was released into the water.  When the reptile stopped moving, the tracers knew that it must have found a body and begun to feed.
The alligator snapper has a small, worm shaped appendage tat the base of its mouth which it can move at will.  It sits, open mouthed, at the bottom of a lake waiting for small fish which are attracted to the "worm".
In some areas of Thailand, turtles are covered in gold leaf and kept in temples.