Snapping turtles on the move

Have you been seeing more turtles than usual on your morning commute lately? If you’ve been driving this spring on rural highways in North Carolina, you might have detected a surge in turtle activity, especially snapping turtles.

Chelydraserpentina, or the common snapping turtle, is one of the more striking members of our state’s turtle clan. They can be distinguished from other turtles in North Carolina by their larger size, a long and noticeably ridged tail, and a top shell (carapace) that is serrated towards the bottom. And if you’ve seen a lot of them recently, it’s probably because it’s snapping turtle nesting season.

Many female snappers right now are leaving their home ponds or bodies of water and looking for a place to lay eggs. These turtles may travel as much as 10 miles from their pond or river to find an appropriate nest site. That’s some serious motherly dedication for a supposedly cold-hearted reptile. Roadside embankments and earthen dams often make good nesting sites because the soil there is often less compacted and easier for nest digging. Spots of water near a body of water are even better because they provide baby turtles easy access to their first aquatic home once they hatch in late summer. The female snapping turtle will lay between 10 and 80 round eggs in such nests and then either make a return journey home, or find a new pond or river to take up residence. Female snappers can lead quite transient lives and may find a new body of water in which to live every year.

If a young turtle is able to survive its first few years, it has a good chance of living a long life. While those kept in captivity have been known to live upwards of 47 years, it is more common for wild snapping turtles to reach 25 to 35 years of age. When mature, a healthy snapping turtle can weigh as much as 60 pounds. With this kind of bulk, such individuals are at the top of the food chain, and nothing really bothers them. Meals consist of fish they are able to lure close with their worm-like tongues, aquatic plants and any carrion they may come across within their watery domain.

Snapping turtles are ancient creatures. Consider this: 80 percent of current turtle species in the world are direct descendants of snapping turtles. That means they are 70 million years old. They haven’t changed much over that time with regard to their physical characteristics. And although they’ve managed to make it this far in the evolutionary timeline, they are vulnerable to the pressures from their human neighbors. Vehicular deaths for females are an all-too-common occurrence this time of year.

So from now until about midsummer, keep your eyes peeled when you’re driving. That strange-looking cat crossing the road may actually be a mother snapping turtle looking for this year’s best nest.

Kevin Dick wrote this article while interning for the LandTrust for Central North Carolina in 2013. At the time he was a student at Duke University.

Kevin Dick