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05/25/2022 07:00 AMThe common snapping turtle is a as prehistoric a creature as you may find in the Northeast. And, judging by the reaction of most people to the very mention of it, one of the scariest, too.
To be sure, rehabilitators working with turtles approach their first snappers with trepidation, too. But once you’ve worked with these animals, you come to realize that their fearsome reputation is undeserved. These are truly the gentle giants of the chelonian world.
Sure, they look like dinosaurs, have claws like grizzly bears, and a bite—when they use it—that’s so fast it startles even those who see it coming. But if you understand a bit about their natural history, those characteristics make perfect sense. Why mess with a perfectly good design?
Their sheer mass and heavy shell make them as indestructible as tanks. Those claws make them incredible climbers, which helps them adapt to almost any habitat situation. And that snap? If you spend most of your life buried in the mud at the bottom of a wetland, it’s pretty important to be able to surprise and grab prey swimming by at the surface before that prey realizes what’s happening and gets away. And if the water’s deep, you need a long neck to reach it.
This is one of nature’s most tried-and-true designs, and it has served these turtles well for hundreds of millions of years. In fact, it has worked so well that they have almost no natural predators, so have very little reason to fear anything. And that’s the key: These are not aggressive animals. They have no reason to be.
So when you meet one of these gentle giants, don’t panic! It just wants to be left alone to carry on whatever it was doing, which is exactly what its species has been doing for millenia: hanging out or looking for something—food, a mate, a new wetland, or a nesting spot. Like any animal, if it feels provoked, it will act to defend itself. And like any animal, it will give you a lot of warnings. It may try to turn around to keep you in its sight, hiss, and make short little warning snaps at you in an effort to make you go away. It’s not looking for a fight.
Treat It with Respect
What it won’t do is come after you. Why would it? That turtle wants to get away from you. If you treat it with respect and don’t get in its face—literally—a snapper will repay the favor. Why stay away from its face? That long neck is capable of reaching pretty far, and if the turtle does sense that you’ve crossed a line into its personal space and that you do pose a threat, it’s certainly capable of biting you. And those powerful jaws can do some damage.
But it’s important to note that, with necks curved like turkey necks, snappers can reach way up, but only a short distance forward or to each side, and not down at all. After all, they evolved to reach prey overhead. So if you keep a safe distance from its head and above its head, it cannot hurt you. And remember, it doesn’t want to.
Snapping turtles do have one predator now: humans. Despite their ultimate resilience throughout history, these gentle giants are now victims of everything from road mortality—they are, sadly, sometimes intentionally hit—to hunting. Connecticut has a season on snappers (still a popular soup turtle), but thankfully passed legislation two years ago outlawing their sale or trade. This new law should curb the drastically increasing international market for their meat, and prevent our largest turtle from joining the list of threatened species.
How to Pick Up a Snapper
To safely move a large snapping turtle, grasp it on either side of its shell between its front and hind legs and lift, taking care to hold it down away from your face, since its head can reach quite a ways up and back, but not far side to side and not down at all. Wearing gloves or placing a towel over the turtle before you pick it up will help protect your hands from its claws, as it will try to swim in the air when you pick it up. If the turtle isn’t too heavy, you can also hold it like a platter, with one hand underneath it and the other keeping the back of its shell balanced, as shown on a video at theturtlesback.org/snapping-turtles.
Snapper Do’s and Don’t’s
• Don’t ever pick up a snapping turtle by the tail; you could damage its spine.
• Do keep a safe distance from the turtle’s head and keep your face far above it if moving the turtle.
• Don’t take an adult turtle back to the water. It’s out of the water for a reason, and knows where it’s going.
• Don’t try to straddle a snapping turtle with your car. Snappers stand tall when they walk, and the undercarriage of the car can sheer the top off of its shell.
• Don’t be afraid to pick up a small snapping turtle. Hatchlings can’t bite you, and juveniles are easily handled according to the instructions below.
• Do carry a bath or beach towel in your car. Throw it over the turtle if you need to move it to protect your hands from its claws. Heavy duty gloves also work.
• Do carry a large, plastic bin in your car if possible. You may need to transport an injured snapper to a rehabber.
• Don’t leave an injured snapper behind. Even mortally wounded they may crawl away.
• Don’t interrupt a turtle laying eggs. If she’s picked a bad spot, call a rehabber to help.
• Do keep dogs away from snappers. They don’t know to keep a distance and could be bitten.
• Don’t take snappers home as pets. It is illegal to possess wildlife, and the “cute, little turtle” will outgrow your ability to care for it.
• Don’t remove snappers from your pond. That’s their home, and they actually help maintain the natural balance of the wetland.
Madison resident Pam Meier has been a certified wildlife rehabilitator since 2015 with a focus on turtles. The goal of wildlife rehabilitation is to provide professional care to sick, injured, and orphaned wild animals so ultimately they can be returned to their natural habitat, if that is possible. You can find out more about her work at theturtlesback.org/about.