SNAPPING TURTLES 
SNAPPING TURTLE 
A man once cut off the head of a snapping turtle. Although it was several 
hundred feet from its pond, the turtle, headless, clambered back into the 
water before dying. This fearsome creature, which sometimes attains a 
length of two feet and a weight of sixty pounds, is drawn to an aquatic life 
from the day of its birth. 
The snapper usually rests on the muddy bottom of ponds, lakes and 
streams. Its brown top shell, imbedded in the mud, looks like a rock. This 
impression is heightened by the slimy, green algae which grows on the 
shell. The snapper’s coloration is an excellent disguise, permitting it to 
gobble up unsuspecting fishes which think they are swimming over just 
another stone — and are captured before realizing their mistake. 
When the snapper sights the leg of a waterfowl on the surface of the 
water, its ferocity is brought into play. Extending its long neck, it shoots its 
head upward and, in the twinkling of an eye, has seized its prey’s limb in 
a cruel beak strong enough to bite off a man’s finger. Down comes the help¬ 
less swan or small goose, whose life is speedily ended by a few more sharp 
hungry snaps. When dead, the victim is torn to pieces and devoured. 
The snapper is not a bit fussy about its food. Sometimes it adds a 
vegetable side dish — marsh grass — to its meat dinner. When food is scarce 
in the water, it plods ashore to capture a chicken or small reptile in its sharp- 
beaked jaws. It drags its captive, sometimes still living, back into the water 
where it leisurely sups in its aquatic dining room. It is believed that the 
snapping turtle can swallow only under water; at any rate, it seems to 
prefer to do so. Yet, despite its voracious character, the snapper can live 
for months without food. 
It lays its round eggs, about two dozen at a time, during the late spring 
or early summer —the date depending on the locality. It goes ashore for 
this task, sometimes traveling for a mile to establish a nest. 
When it reaches what it deems a satisfactory spot, it industriously 
scoops out a hole with its hind legs. There it deposits the thin, but hard- 
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