A female snapping turtle made her way into the backyard a couple days ago. My g/f (who digs turtles) figures the snapper was attracted to the recently cut grass. I'm figuring the snapper is female, as June is egg-laying season, and she had begun to dig a little spot to lay her eggs. I'm about 1/6 mile from the river, and there are certainly plenty of swampy areas very nearby, but this is the 1st time I've ever encountered a snapper "in the wild."















I kept our encounter - and photo session - fairly brief, as I know I was disturbing her. I gave her some lettuce and bananas, but she didn't eat. About 8 hours after she left, I saw her again - she was walking along the back edge of my yard in a thunderstorm, head held high. It was too far away and too dark to get a pic; I felt kinda sad for her.

cool shot... the tail really looks like a dinosaur.

I saw a giant snapper in a clear water creek in OK... and that thing was a dinosaur. A Prehistoric creature...

Thanks for sharing these shots and jogging my memories of a simpler time.

[imtheguy]

Wow do we have different reactions here. I grew up on on a salt marsh with snappers and learned the hard way how quick and mean they are. Tip of my thumb was ripped off as a 7 yr old, so I learned to use a much longer stick to poke them. Not something I would want breeding in my yard anymore than ticks! But.....if my g/f was all about them then I see why I might have to take lots of sympathetic pics. But thats just me....Nice shots you took. Enjoy the hatch if it comes about. The hatching could make some neat shots.

[flippedgazelle]

Thank you for the kind words, gentlemen!

imtheguy, I'm sorry to hear about your thumb! Most of the photos I took of this turtle were with the long end of the DA 50-200.

I think it's possible that the snapper laid her eggs in the tall grasses behind my neighbor's yard - I'm gonna keep an eye out for them, and definitely "discourage" any turtlings from hanging around.

Igilligan, I would be real nervous around a "giant snapper"... mine was only about 2ft from head to tail, and that was big enough for me. I really dig the prehistoric look of the creature... my g/f's late brother had been part of a turtle rescue unit, and for a while adopted an alligator turtle!

[imtheguy]

imtheguy, I'm sorry to hear about your thumb!

Thanks but it was not traumatic or anything...not even a real scar left at this point. Just a lesson that the big ones can stretch that neck and almost jump to get to something more than a foot away if they WANT to. Have fun with them but NO PETTING!

[Thesorus]

That's a good test subject for the 5.2fps of the K7!!!

[Ash]

#3's got the scare factor for kids...
Straight from the cast of Monsters Inc...

[dcmsox2004]

now that's a face only a mother could love...
nice series of a subject not normally seen this up close and personal

[flippedgazelle]

That's a good test subject for the 5.2fps of the K7!!!

As imtheguy has stated, snappers are not for petting. They can reach about 1/2 way across the carapace, and have one of the most powerful bites in the animal kingdom.