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Common Snapping Turtle

Chelydra serpentina

Description:

Series: On this particular morning, I found this large grumpy Snapping Turtle digging a shallow spot in the soil where just one day earlier, in the same spot, there was a mother Killdeer nesting a single egg (photo included and posted separately). I had been monitoring both the Killdeer mother and egg for several days in hopes to photograph the hatching. Unfortunately, once the turtle left, there was no evidence of either the mother or egg.

Habitat:

Grassy area about 10 meters from a freshwater pond.

Notes:

Snapping turtles consume both plant and animal matter, and are important aquatic scavengers, but they are also active hunters that prey on anything they can swallow, including many invertebrates, fish, frogs, reptiles (including snakes and smaller turtles), unwary birds, and small mammals. In some areas, adult snapping turtles can be incidentally detrimental to breeding waterfowl, as they will occasionally take ducklings and goslings but their effect on such prey is frequently exaggerated.

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5 Comments

Joseph R. Godreau
Joseph R. Godreau 7 years ago

Thank you...

Great series Joseph,congrats on the SOTD and thanks for sharing

DanielePralong
DanielePralong 7 years ago

Congratulations Joseph, this great series and story is our Spotting of the Day!

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grade-78-science4
grade-78-science4 7 years ago

The common snapping turtle is a large freshwater turtle of the family Chelydridae. Its natural range extends from southeastern Canada, southwest to the edge of the Rocky Mountains, as far east as Nova Scotia and Florida.

grade-78-science8
grade-78-science8 7 years ago

The common snapping turtle is a large freshwater turtle of the family Chelydridae. Its natural range extends from southeastern Canada, southwest to the edge of the Rocky Mountains, as far east as Nova Scotia and Florida

Joseph R. Godreau
Spotted by
Joseph R. Godreau

Michigan, USA

Spotted on Jun 21, 2016
Submitted on Feb 15, 2017

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