Snapping Turtle
Chelydra serpentina
They prefer slow-moving freshwater with soft, muddy bottoms where they can bury themselves to hide. You can find them in farm ponds, marshes, shallow rivers, and unlike most other freshwater turtles, they can even tolerate brackish water.
These hardy survivors have a massive range, covering almost all of Eastern North America from Nova Scotia and the Rockies in the north, all the way down to the Gulf of Mexico and Central America.
As the “vacuum cleaners” of their ecosystem, they are omnivorous scavengers and hunters. They consume aquatic vegetation, fish, frogs, and insects, but also perform a vital service by eating carrion (dead animals) and occasionally catching small waterbirds.
In the wild, they typically live between 30 and 45 years, though some individuals in protected environments or captivity have been recorded living for over 50 years.
- Why so snappy? Unlike other turtles, they have a very small bottom shell (plastron) and cannot fully retract their limbs or head for protection. This vulnerability makes them fight back aggressively on land, whereas in the water, they usually just swim away.
- Butt-breathers: During cold winters, they hibernate underwater and absorb oxygen directly from the water through specialized tissues in their cloaca—essentially breathing through their rear end!
- Snake-like: Their species name, serpentina, refers to their incredibly long, snake-like necks, which can reach halfway back across their shell to snap at predators (or careless handlers).
