Alligator Snapping Turtle

Alligator Snapping Turtles are a benthic dweller of the waterbodies they inhabit, typically favoring the deepest part of the waterway. They are most active during the night when they may traverse through their home range actively feeding and scavenging. This species feeds on carrion, fish, reptiles (including other turtles), amphibians, arthropods, mollusks, annelids, mammals, and aquatic vegetation. During the day, this species is highly inactive, and may sit motionless on the bottom of the water column for hours at a time. However, they have evolved a unique adapation to still feed while relatively inactive. Equipped with a worm-like appendage in their mouths, this turtle will sit motionless in the water, moving the “lure” to attract prey such as fish, which it will bite down upon once inside the widely-opened jaws. A solitary species by nature, the Alligator Snapping Turtle has an average home range of just under 0.80 km, of which it typically uses a submerged object to define the core of its range (Riedle, et al., 2006). Individuals may however make considerable movements of several kilometers up and downstream from its home range. An obligate aquatic, this species rarely leaves the water except to lay eggs, or if displaced by flooding events. Females will migrate to nesting sites tens of meters away from the waterline to deposit up to 50 or more eggs. This species was heavily hunted for commercial and personal consumption in the past leading to localized and range-wide population declines. It is now protected from hunting in every state in which it resides, with the exception of Louisiana, where one individual may be collected per day for personal use.