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Species Spotlight: Common Snapping Turtle

Learn more about the popular Common Snapping Turtle!

This turtle is known for its sharp, powerful chompers and lightning-fast reflexes. Its neck can reach almost all the way behind it, making it dangerous to pick up anywhere but the very rear of its body. It also sports a long tail lined with bony plates that is often as long as its carapace.

Despite its “Common” name, this gnarly-faced turtle faces numerous threats, including development, road mortality, collection for consumption, and increased predation of their eggs. If you find yourself in a position to safely help a snapping turtle cross the road, be sure to pick it up from its rear or coerce it onto a flat, movable object and guide it in the direction it is heading.

Braking for turtles is just one way you can support Common Snapping Turtles and others like them. Join us all month long as we celebrate Turtle Month and the conservation efforts we do to keep turtles thriving in wild places.

• Pictured: Common Snapping Turtle (Chelydra serpentina)
• Countries of Origin: United States of America, Canada
• Habitat: Freshwater ponds, lakes, marshes, swamps, ditches, slow-moving rivers and streams, and brackish estuaries
• Wild Population: Stable/Unknown; highly adaptable to man-made aquatic environments; decreasing in some areas due to collection for the food trade
• IUCN Red List Status: Least Concern
• Threats: Habitat destruction and degradation; road mortality; pollution; collection for personal and commercial consumption