Snapping Turtle (Chelydra serpentina)

County List:

Rule:

Forested or Nonforested Landscapes

      (Lake or Pond or River or Any Emergent Wetland)

Habitat List:

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Literature:

Snapping turtles occur in a variety of aquatic habitats but are most common in slow-moving rivers, marshes, and muddy-bottomed lakes with dense plant growth. They seem quite tolerant of organic pollution. Snappers rarely bask but frequently travel overland when seeking better habitat or nesting sites, and many are killed while crossing roads.

Snapping turtles eat a variety of foods, including insects, worms, leeches, crayfish, snails, tadpoles, frogs, fish, birds small mammals, carrion, and a variety of aquatic plants.

Most breeding activity occurs in the spring and early summer. Nesting takes place from late May into July. The female seeks sunny sites with moist sand or soil, sometimes traveling a considerable distance from the water.

Habitat: Bottom dweller in any permanent and many semipermanent bodies of fresh or brackish water; occasionally in temporary water. Marshes, swamps, bogs, pools, lakes, streams, rivers, frequently in areas with soft muddy banks or bottoms. Formerly thought to prefer permanent water. Almost entirely aquatic, but will travel overland. Hibernates from October to March or April in mud or debris in lake bottoms, banks, and muskrat holes, but has been seen walking on and under the ice.

Special Habitat Requirements: Aquatic habitat

Habitat: Snapping turtles may be found in any marsh, stream, or lake, and even occasionally in brackish water. Ideal habitat appears to be shallow fresh marshes, sluggish meandering streams, and marshy coves along lakes. In these soft bottom habitats, the omnivorous snapper finds easy foraging upon an abundance of prey species as well as the sprouts and shoots of tender aquatic plants. They are active from late may to October and hibernate in bottom sediments during the colder months. Individuals may occur in fast-flowing rocky streams, sandy bottom lakes, or in deep waters with little aquatic vegetation. In Maine, however, snapping turtles are never very abundant in such habitats.

Females leave the water during June to dig nests and lay eggs in gravel, sand, light loams, occasionally a sawdust pile, or the decaying vegetation in a muskrat house. Individuals may migrate to sites several hundred meters from water. Snappers are commonly seen during June along highways, railroad embankments, dikes, and in gardens and other places with light-textured soil.