What Is A Snapping Turtle

Snapping Turtle

The common snapping turtle of North America is a large bad tempered turtle having a powerful jaws which snap with great forces.  This tells us how the snapping turtle gets its name.

Snapping turtles live in muddy streams and swampy ponds.  A full-grown “snapper” may weigh 30 pounds and have a shell a foot long.

It may look clumsy, but it can move quickly on land and can make short leaps on its strong legs to snaps its food.  When this turtle is attacked, it snaps with lightning speed, its strong, sharp-edged jaws can inflict dangerous bites.

A close relative of a common snapper is the big alligator snapping turtles that lives in the rivers of the gulf states.  They are the biggest snappers of all.  A big one can weigh 140 pounds or more.  A snapping turtles shell can be 2 feet long and is covered with rows of bumps, much like the skin of a real alligator.–Dick Rogers