SNAPPING TURTLE

Jack Schmidling Productions, Inc.
Marengo Illinois

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SNAPPING TURTLE

We nearly ran over this happy fellow last week. I stopped to take him home for a photo session and possibly release him in our pond. After several attempts to pick him up by the back legs, it became obvious that this was a very bad idea.

We left him there and went home to get the camera. Upon finding him still in the middle of the road, I tried moving him off with a 2x4 and it became very clear what a foolhardy thing it was to try to pick him up. Every time I brought the board within a foot of him, he charged and snapped at it with the speed of light. He actually took small chunks out of the wood.

I did not get any size reference into the photo but his carapace is about 12" long making him a rather large specimen.

Another interesting tidbit is that it was nearly impossible to get a side view of him. Every time I tried to move to one side, he would rotate like a gun turret and point directly at me. He did this about as fast as I could move.

After pushing him off the road with the board, we wished him luck and returned home.