Besides big jaws in the front another turtle defense is to shoot shat out the backdoor. That stuff is nasty. When I lived in Louisiana I moved many turtles off the road. Not too sure what good I did but it made me feel better.
One thing I worried about is people taking the big ones home for dinner. It seemed sad that the poor thing lived thirty years to get cooked because he tried to cross a road. I agree you are a brave man Mr. Tom G
I was concerned it woould poop/pee on me but it minded its manners other than trying to bite me.
I saw one of these suckers one time and I would guess it must have been way old. It was probably 3 feet around maybe more. It was so big that even when it went under water its shell stuck out of the water. I would say from the bottom to the top part of the shell it was a good 1 1/2 - 2 feet. I have never seen something that big and ugly in the turtle family. It was every bit as large as the big turtles you see in the Zoo. Really amazing. Oh I guess the other amazing thing was there was another turtle about half the size in the same pond right near it. They must have been buds.
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Alligator Snapping turtles (Macroclemys temmenicki) are aquatic turtles. They prefer deeper, slow moving water whereas common snapping turtles prefer shallow water.
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The nests does not need protection from nature but from people. Let your state wildlife officer know about the nest. They are a protected species (on the state level, not the national level).
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Incubation takes about sixty days depending on temperature. Higher temperatures reduce incubation time, lower temperatures extend it.
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Males usually spend there entire lives in the water, females emerge to nest. Although there are reports of Alligator Snapping Turtles basking. Here at the Houston Zoo, ours do bask on occasion.
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If you move it, carry it in the direction it is heading. If you move it back it will try to cross the road again.
hblake
Supervisor
Houston Zoo
Southern alligator snapping tutrles can actually reach a size of 300 lbs and over three feet long. They can break the arm bones of a full grown man with one snap. Northern alligator turtles always seemed particularly ornery to me. Always handle with care. Now, snapping turtles, red ear sliders, red bellys and painted turtles all prefer the water, with the latter particularly enjoy a nice rock or stump well out in the water to bask on from time to time. If they are out on the road, then they are obviously on a mission.
In the past two years here in northern New Jersey, I have “assisted” about three box turtles, a couple of snappers, a wood turtle, a mud turtle, and several red bellys across the road. If they have their mind set on a direction, they are gonna go that way. Most of the water loving turtles were too small to be breeders, I think they were just looking for greener pastures. Large ones like you describe are already kings or queens of their water hole and are probably breeding females. Eggs hatch in three to four weeks typically. My experience has been limited to red ears, going up a small creek and laying eggs not far from the water in the woods. Baby turtles prefer shallow waters with a lot of reeds water plants etc. A couple of weeks ago I rescued a red belly from a very busy road (guaranteed doom) in “town”. I brought it home (I was driving) for my daughters’ biology lesson of the day. The next day we took it to a good size lake. You should have seen it perk up at the sight of all that water. Otherwise, on back road areas, I generally just assist the guy across the road, particularly if I am on a bike.
One more story, about a month ago, I was on a 70 mile ride. I was cresting a small hill panting away as usual with head hanging down. A bell goes off in the back of my head that I just passed something that looked like a baby turtle, which is questionable in early May. I turn around and check and there in the shoulder lane is a spanking brand new baby red belly just barely bigger than the diameter of a quarter and just as round, trucking away like it’s got another 500 miles to go before sundown in the proper direction, i.e. parallel to the road. Well obviously, this was one little turtle with a lot of ambition, on top of a hill in the middle of the day next to fast cars and trucks with no water in sight. I figured it was a female with dreams of being the biggest fish in the biggest lake it could find. So I decided to help out and ferry it to the next nice patch of water I came across. I had no pockets that day, so I had to hold it in one hand, resting my forearm on the Syntase bars (P3). It turned out the next water was about 2 miles. Fortunately it was mostly downhill or flat. The water was a good size creek running at a steady clip. Unfortunately, it was about 10-12 feet below the road level and not accessible from the sides of the road bridge. So the little ambitious one after having recorded the fastest travel speed (15 mph), probably also made the first airborne assault for its brood.
Yeah, I’m bit batty about turtles.
By the time I see them, it’s hard to tell which direction they were headed. Sometimes they get nicked by a tire and spun.
I’ve rescued a box turtle this spring and my wife and kids rescued a large, supremely ungrateful snapper.
There seem to be a lot more turtles out on the streets this spring than I ever remember seeing or hearing about. I wonder if it is related to all the rain. Maybe traveling futher to find dry ground to nest?
Wild animal rescue is fun and educational. I’m definitely not if favor of letting “evolution” happen. We bike riders have a lot in common with those turtles.
Which reminds me, during one of my son’s baseball practices this spring, the kids found an albino baby turtle of undetermined species right in the middle of the dirt infield. I tried to take control and take it home and figure out what to do with it. But the mom of the kid who picked it up first insisted he take it with them. After getting assurance that he would at least try to find a good body of water for it, I let it go, rather than argue.
?s-How did that turtle get there? No water in sight. What should one do with a wild albino reptile?
I think the Shedd aquarium in Chicago has one of these Aligator Snapper monsters…or they did last time I was there, which was probably a dozen years ago. I remember standing in front of the aquarium for what seemed like forever, waiting for it to move. It never did. I decided it was a plastic fake and moved on.
I moved two snappers plus a large paint turtle across the road on the weekend. Living in a rural area we see lots of them. They’re always walking across the roads and some of the pickup drivin’ rednecks in our area seem oblivous to them.
Don’t know much about the questions you ask but do be careful moving a snapper. They could take a finger without problems. I get behind them and grab on each side of the shell at the mid way point. I you grab too far back the rear claws can scratch. I picked up a snapper one time that I swear was 25 lbs or more.
Glad to hear that I’m not the only guy on the forum that helps these critters out.
I actually saw a turtle on the road this morning.
I passed by him pretty fast, from the looks of it I believe it was a Michelin Aquatred Turtle.
This is funny because the group I was with came across a snapper Sunday. When my buddy went to move it out of the road it snapped at him. That thing spun and lunged pretty good, almost pissed laughing at my buddy jump. That thing did piss all over, smelled like hell. We ended up leaving it, and it was gone when we got back. It must be nesting time.
That’s pretty fun. They do jump at ya. It’s safe to say that I’ll help a mud turtle, paint turtle, and all other turtles of kindly ilk. But I will not help one of those snapping turtles cross the road. They are prehistoric looking, mean bastards, and that’s enough for me to decide that they are on their own.
Being that you are in Michigan and the size of the turtle I would guess it was a regular snapping turtle and not an alligator snapping turtle. Regular snappers can get to around 50 to 60 lbs. and the alligator variety can get over 250 lbs. Generally you want to pick them up by the tail if possible, it makes a good handle and they can’t bite you in that position. Be careful of the piss stream, they always let lose when picked up. They can roam very far from the water, as in miles. It is generally best to just take them across the road in the direction they are heading, otherwise they will just come back up out of the water and make another attempt at crossing the road. I have lived along the Mississippi river all my life and have moved countless turtles off the roads. In fact, I was given my nom de plume because of it.
Yeah, you got a plain jane common snapping turtle. They can inflict a pretty nasty bite, but I wouldn’t consider them dangerous. When you pick one up, as has been mentioned, watch the head and the tail – peeing a defense mechanism, and a very effective one at that.
Common snappers get pretty big, alligator snappers get HUGE – up to 250 pounds for males, 50-75 for females (I guess alligator snappers like their women small).
My one and only high speed crash came when I sprinted ahead of the group to check out a turtle crossing the road. After checking him out, I was goofing around, slaloming on the yellow lines waiting for the group to catch up, did something stupid and went down. I also have a penchant for moving snakes off the road when I see them on rides. I like turtles, but I love snakes. I have a 12 foot python I use in presentations for work.
Tom D: musician, professional skateboarder, bike fitter extraordinaire, Ironman, Euro cyclist, turtle lover. And oh yeah, inaugural JAOTW. That’s a pretty impressive resume.
RP