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.

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).

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