Snapping Turtle Information for Kids

Common snapping turtle

Two kinds of snapping turtles live in the United States: the common snapping turtle and the much larger alligator snapping turtle. Snapping turtles are reptiles, meaning they are cold-blooded animals that cannot move about when the weather turns freezing. Snapping turtles have strong jaws and a mouth that resembles a beak. This turtle can give you a very serious bite and you should never approach, tease or try to play with a snapping turtle if you find one.

Behavior

Snapping turtles are at home in the water, with the alligator snapping turtle rarely coming onto land. The common snapping turtle is the type you are more likely to meet, as it will walk up onto the shores of the streams, lake, ponds, swamps and rivers it lives in. In early summer, snapping turtle females will come onto land to lay their eggs before returning. The alligator snapping turtle males stay in the water all the time, with only the females coming on land to lay eggs. In winter in places where it gets cold, a common snapping turtle will hibernate in the mud at the bottom of a pond or swamp, coming out when the weather finally gets warmer.

Geography

If you live east of the Rocky Mountains then you live where common snapping turtles do as well. Nearly any body of water that has enough food can support a common snapping turtle, such as a river, stream, pond, reservoir, lake, swamp or creek. The alligator snapping turtle lives in states like Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama and Tennessee. The rivers and waterways that eventually flow into the Gulf of Mexico are the home of this reptile. The alligator snapper prefers deeper water in which to live.

Common Snapper Diet

The diet of a common snapping turtle consists of different types of water plants and animals. The turtle will eat whatever it can catch, such as fish, frogs, tadpoles, small mammals and birds. Snails, snakes and insects are also things the common snapping turtle will eat. The common snapping turtle will eat the remains of drowned and dead animals it finds.

Alligator Snapper

The alligator snapping turtle is the largest of the freshwater turtles in the world, according to the "National Audubon Society Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians." The alligator snapper can weigh over 200 lbs. and be as long as 31 inches. The alligator snapping turtle remains underwater for long stretches, as long as 20 minutes, coming to the surface to breathe before going back down. Inside its mouth is a small piece of flesh that the turtle can wiggle, making it look like a worm. With its mouth open underwater, the alligator snapper tricks fish and other creatures close as they investigate the "worm" and then close their mouths on them and eat them.

Defense

The upper shell of a snapping turtle, called a carapace, is larger than the underneath shell, known as a plastron. This means that when faced with danger, a snapping turtle cannot pull its body inside its shell as other turtles can. The snapping turtle protects itself by having a much longer and more flexible neck that allows it to be able to turn around and bite. The bite of a large snapping turtle would be very painful and could do great harm to a finger, leg or hand. In the water, the snapping turtle will quietly swim away from danger under the surface but on land, the snapper will face an enemy head on and fight when necessary.

References

• Oklahoma Dept of Wildlife Conservation: Oklahoma's Turtles
• Who Zoo: Alligator Snapping Turtle
• "National Audubon Society Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians"; John L. Behler: 2008