ALLIGATOR SNAPPING TURTLE 
If turtles were given to sneering, the alligator snapper, largest North 
American turtle, could rightfully sneer at its close relative, the common 
snapper. In virtually every respect does it outshine its feared, but com¬ 
paratively puny, neighbor. For example, while the common snapper can 
bite off a man’s finger, the alligator snapper puts it to shame by easily 
being able to bite off a man’s arm. 
This denizen of the lower Mississippi, the Gulf States and the south¬ 
eastern United States attains a length of more than four feet and a weight 
of well over one hundred pounds. Down its dull yellow carapace run three 
rows of keels which look like miniature strings of mountain peaks and add 
little, if anything, to its beauty. The alligator snapper is generally consid¬ 
ered, and rightfully, to be the largest, ugliest and fiercest turtle in North 
America. 
Early backwoodsmen are responsible for its name. Pioneers thought 
that this creature was the result of a mating between the common snapping 
turtle and the alligator because it looks like the former but has a long, 
knobby alligator-like tail. However, the legend is untrue; science has yet 
to discover a romance between a crocodilian and a chelonian. 
Equipped with a pair of jaws capable of snapping a broom handle 
in two and then crunching it to bits, the voracious brute does not dally with 
its prey. Once its head, which is as large as a bull terrier’s, comes within 
striking distance of a fish, duck, frog or snake, the victim’s doom is sealed. 
In procuring food it uses the decoy with which nature generously pro¬ 
vided both the alligator snappers and common snappers. This consists of a 
pink filament lying on the turtle’s tongue. The turtle waves it about in a 
slow, circular motion so that it appears to be a worm. The body of the 
alligator snapper is not visible because the dull-yellow top shell blends with 
the coffee-colored water. As a fish pauses to investigate the worms floating 
over the “rock,” the jaws of the turtle open wide and finish the poor fish with 
a few sharp bites. 
When the alligator snapper walks on land, its body is held high on 
erect limbs, giving it a somewhat stilted, haughty appearance. The massive 
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