My brother was called to get this guy out of someone's backyard. I haven't seen a snapping turtle this big since I was a teenager and one wandered up to our neighborhood from the nearby reservoir. They are mean and their jaws are powerful.
After seeing that one oh so many years ago, I was worried about swimming in the lake because these creatures are lurking there below the surface. Check out the nose...perfectly designed so the body can be submerged with the two nostrils just breaking the surface to breathe. Can you imagine having on of these latch onto your toe when you go in for a dip? Once it grabbed ahold, it would never let go, just like the broomstick we used to test that one we found way back when.
It looks so prehistoric. I'm sure this one is pretty old...they can be 30 years old in the wild. This one was about 3' long from the tip of the tail to tip of the nose.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Giant Snapping Turtle: Chelydra serpentina
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8 comments:
Holy crap! Its massive! I wouldn't like to mess with him!
OMG!!!!! I would not want to be swimming with that below the surface. Good Lord almighty, my ass would be out of that water so fast that heads would spin.
You are SO right. It does look prehistoric. Blech!
We see those guys all the time in my neighborhood. The Muddy River is full of them. And yeah, they are pretty prehistoric and creepy looking.
When I was working construction in Indiana, another contractor had one of these guys upside-down in his pickup bed...he was going to make soup out of it or some such nonsense. I think they look cool, in a sinister way...
--Alex
wow. so much different than the honu (green sea turtles) here! i'm so used to big flippers and beautiful shells and not such an unfriendly face (and demeanor). that *does* look prehistoric.
I hope it was released into the wild somewhere. They are mean, but I'd hate to think it was exterminated just for being in someone's back yard.
cb---yes, it was released, although I made my brother promise it wouldn't be in the lake down the street!
A living dinosaur indeed; when does he run for the Senate?
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