Family: Chelydridae, Snapping Turtles view all from this family
Description 8-18 1/2" (20-47 cm). The familiar "snapper," with massive head and powerful jaws. Carapace tan to dark brown, often masked with algae or mud, bearing 3 rows of weak to prominent keels, and serrated toward the back. Plastron yellow to tan, unpatterned, relatively small, and cross-shaped in outline. Tail as long as carapace; with saw-toothed keels. Tubercles on neck. Wild specimens range to 45 lbs. (20.5 kg). Some fattened captives exceed 75 lbs. (34 kg).
Warning Snappers have massive heads with powerful, hooked jaws. They strike viciously when lifted from water or teased and can inflict a serious bite.
Subspecies Four; 2 in our range:
Eastern Snapping Turtle (C. s. serpentina), blunt tubercles on neck; throughout our range, except Florida.
Florida Snapping Turtle (C. s. osceola), pointed tubercles on neck; throughout the Florida peninsula.
Breeding Mates April to November; peak laying season is June. Lays as many as 83 (typically 25-50) spherical, 1 1/8" (29 mm) eggs in 4'7: (10-18 cm) deep, flask-shaped cavity. Each egg is directed into place by alternating movements of hind feet. Incubation, depending on weather, takes 9-18 weeks. In temperate localities, hatchlings overwinter in nest. Females may retain sperm for several years. Females often travel to a nesting site some distance from water.
Habitat Freshwater. Likes soft mud bottoms and abundant vegetation. Also enters brackish waters.
Range S. Alberta to Nova Scotia, south to the Gulf.
Discussion Highly aquatic, it likes to rest in warm shallows, often buried in mud, with only its eyes and nostrils exposed. It emerges in April from a winter retreat beneath an overhanging mudbank, under vegetative debris, or inside a muskrat lodge. The snapper eats invertebrates, carrion, aquatic plants, fish, birds, and small mammals. It is an excellent swimmer: Individuals displaced 2 miles have returned to their capture sites within several hours. Some consider snapper meat a delicacy, and excellent soups are prepared from it.
