I was looking at the new lily pads in the Lullwater in Prospect Park when:
Ol’ Snap appeared. Not the kind of turtle to run when you approach.
Chelydra serpentina has a fearsome reputation, but that’s probably just bad PR. (Duckling-centric PR, since they are in legend supposed to decimate baby ducks.) Still, you don’t want to get bit by the thick-necked beast.
This one was about 16″ long from snout to tail tip. And note that long tail, with small spikes looking rather dinosaur-ish: none of our other turtles has such a prominent tail. Also, the toothy projections on the rear edge of the carapace (top shell) are distinctive. (The Canada goose wasn’t intimidated by me or the snapper.)
This carapace is beautiful. Another anatomical fact about snappers is that they have very small plastrons (underside shell). These turtles do not bask, so it was nice to catch this one emerging from the murk below.
Field Notes: Snapping Turtle
13 responses to “Field Notes: Snapping Turtle”
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[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Matthew Wills. Matthew Wills said: Blog post: Field Notes: Snapping Turtle: I was looking at the new lily pads in the Lullwater in Prospect Park when… http://bit.ly/c8vNyC […]
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gosh, I’ve never seen the tail (or maybe I’ve forgotten) but it does make the turtle appear even more pre-historic than most.
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It is great to have the chance to look at the beautifully colored and patterned carapace in your full-resolution images. Look at that thick neck – could be a linebacker!
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Yes, this is a surprising clean carapace, considering the muck this one spent the winter in. All the water is Prospect Park is city water, which means it’s clorinated, and I wonder if that cuts down on the watery flora you often see attached to turtles?
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I bet you’re absolutely right about the chlorinated water.
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[…] (Vocabulary bonus: the bottom half of the shell is called a plastron.) I wonder when the big snapping turtle of last May will […]
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[…] Prospect Park Lullwater has at least one good-sized snapper, with what I would call an immaculate shell. […]
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[…] before. Prospect Park has, at minimum, the following species of turtle: red-eared slider, painted, snapping, musk. The majority are red-eared sliders. Recently, an enormous snapping turtle, looking for some […]
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[…] Park has Snappers, too. Share this:StumbleUponDiggRedditTwitterLike this:LikeBe the first to like this […]
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[…] reason to enforce the leash law in our parks?). Judging by the shell, I’d say I’ve seen this giant before. Also, even enormous Snappers start small; here’s a baby I found in Mass a couple of years […]
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[…] Turtle (Chelydra serpentina). I’ve seen snappers as little as a silver dollar and as big as a Fiat — no, make that a minibus — but not in-between, at least here in Brooklyn. Glad to see […]
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[…] years ago in the Discovery Center pond. Much more growth on the shell of that younger specimen. The huge beastie I’ve seen in Prospect Park’s watercourse a few times over the years has also evinced a […]
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[…] Wills of Backyard and Beyond up in New York City spotted a really nice snapping turtle (possibly the cleanest snapper I’ve ever seen) swimming around in a Prospect Park pond and […]
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