New York Zoological Society. 
SNAPPING TURTLE (Chelydra serpentina). Length: iy 2 feet. Range: Southern 
Canada to Ecuador. 
shelled eggs and permits the dirt to slide back into the hole as a protective 
covering. When this task is completed, the turtle trudges back to its watery 
home. 
The young turtles, when hatched, are only about one inch in diameter. 
But from the moment that they break from the shell these infant turtles 
are on their own. They must support themselves because, like most cold¬ 
blooded creatures, they receive neither food nor training from their mother. 
Instinctively the young snapper sets out for the nearest body of water as soon 
as it emerges from the egg. Experiments have shown that even if obstacles 
are placed in its way, or it is turned in the opposite direction, it will head 
stubbornly for the water in which it thrives. 
As the snapper grows past maturity, its easygoing life begins to show. 
It becomes so overburdened with the fat of good living that it can move its 
broad, webbed feet only with difficulty, at a lumbering crawl. 
In this period of its life, the snapping turtle is greatly relished by 
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