What Does a Snapping Turtle Eat?

The snapping turtle is a throwback to the days of the dinosaurs. This reptile, with a mouth like a hooked beak, eats a variety of things that exist within its habitat. However, it is often criticized for affecting the environment much more negatively than is actually the case.

Plant Life

The typical snapping turtle dines on aquatic vegetation, depending on plants for as much as two thirds of its diet. The bulk of its aquatic plant intake occurs in the summer months after the plants mature.

Prey

Snapping turtles will lie on the bottom motionless and wait for a fish to swim before grabbing it with those powerful jaws and eating it. The snapper also hunts other aquatic life such as frogs, tadpoles, mollusks and crayfish.

Benefits

The snapper is an important scavenger of its ecosystem, finding and eating dead animals in the water and near the shore. Eating what many anglers consider "junk fish" species actually benefits game fish, which the turtles would otherwise consume.

Misconception

Waterfowl, especially baby ducklings, occasionally wind up on a snapping turtle's menu. However, this is a rarity; the snapper does not decimate waterfowl populations, as many people believe.

Fun Fact

The alligator snapper, a larger subspecies of the southern states, has a fleshy "lure" in the rear of its mouth that it wiggles to bring curious fish closer so it can grab and swallow them.

References

• Food and Food Acquisition:Tortoise Trust
• Life History: Missouri Dept of Conservation Website