Snapping Turtles

Bob Ranney sent this photograph of a snapping turtle that was 18" long, wondering

about its age. We sent this question to Dr. Day Ligon at Missouri State University.

"That is indeed a large snapper—especially for Missouri! Unfortunately, it’s not possible to infer age from size of adult turtles because, despite what you might hear, they don’t really exhibit continuous growth. These guys are omnivorous, and in many populations plants make up the majority of individuals’ diet. This species also typically reaches sexual maturity at 5-7 years, which is young for such a large
species. They lay just one clutch annually, but clutches can be huge, ranging from
30 to over 100 eggs. The eggs are spherical."

Omnivores indeed. according to MDC
Discover Nature "Insects, crayfish, fish,
snails, earthworms, amphibians, snakes,
small mammals, and birds. However, up
to a third of the diet may consist of
aquatic vegetation. Carrion may also be
consumed." A few weeks ago there were
lots of frog eggs in two 15' water filled tire
tracks along the creek where I also found
a 10" snapping turtle. When I prodded it
out with a hiking stick it opened its jaws
to attack and out rolled hundreds of frog
eggs!

It has been a big year for snappers.  Besides the 10" snapper mentioned above, our stream ecology team found two others crossing the field.  At the other end of the size scale, our neighbor girls June and Kate found this little baby snapping turtle far away from the water.

MDC Discover Nature describes the young turtles as, "the upper shell has 3 rows of

low keels, but these are less apparent in older individuals." You can see this in the
one we found on the path at the Springfield Botanical Garden. It was motionless
and thinking it was dead I put it in my shirt pocket to take to the 5th grade WOLF
School. We left it on the kitchen counter over night (I married the right woman, a
saint) and the next morning we found it on the family room carpet 15 feet away,
crawling to freedom. We named him Lazarus and after its classroom duties it

returned to pond life.

There is a high infant mortality for eggs and young turtles as lot of nature has a taste
for them. Skunks, crows, foxes and raccoons are common predators of eggs and
young as are great blue herons, bullfrogs, hawks and snakes. The adults make up
for that high attrition by longevity. The snapper's life span in nature is uncertain but
one mark/recapture study documented a 100 year old specimen.

I was surprised at how far away from water we found them but this isn't uncommon.

They can travel a long way from water and females can hold sperm for several years
as necessary! Combining this with their ability to hibernate under ice for 6 months in
northern climes and we have one tough mama!

My first encounter with a snapper was in 1997, long
before I had any nature education. We found this one
crossing the field headed toward the creek. I had
been told that they could "wipe out a fish population"
and foolishly we shot it. We then turned the carapace
into a wall light sconce and are continuously reminded
of how important getting the right information about
wildlife can be for humans and other animals.

Another important lesson is picking up a snapper by
the tail can cause serious internal damage to the
turtle. Picking it up by the shell may provide a painful
lesson on how far it can extend its neck. Knowing
what I know now, I now would limit my contacts to a

camera like this one back in 2013.

More details at Wikipedia.