JONESBORO SUN (Arkansas) 29 July 05 Alligator snapping turtle: Arkansas giant worth saving (Joy B. Trauth and Stan E. Trauth)

Jonesboro: We have become accustomed to hearing bad news when it comes to species conservation, but hard work by scientists, conservationists, and government officials is sometimes successful. That is the case with the alligator snapping turtle, one of the world's largest freshwater turtles.

An Arkansas resident, it can also be found across the South from eastern Oklahoma and Texas to northern Florida and along the Mississippi River as far north as Iowa.

However, for some 40-years, a bad-tempered snapping turtle named "Old Bob" was rumored to live in Laguna Lake in Southern California.

Recently, workers dredging the lake snared a 100-pound snapping turtle near a park dam. The alligator snapping turtle is an estimated 50-years-old and 36-inches long. Local officials have no idea how the turtle -- which can live for up to 100 years -- ended up in Southern California.

This creature normally reaches 2-feet in length and over 200 pounds in weight [although there is an unconfirmed rumor of a 403-pound individual being found in the Neosho River in Kansas in 1937].

The alligator snapper is almost entirely aquatic and nocturnal; it rarely basks and apparently leaves the water only to nest. It inhabits medium- to large-sized rivers, sloughs, oxbows, and lakes. Due to its large size, it is usually not found in isolated ponds or smaller lakes as is the common snapper.

The alligator snapper spends most of its time immobile or walking around on the bottom. Alligator snappers have a unique method of attracting food.

Alligator snapping turtles are a perfect example of "sit and wait" predators. They have been known to sit in one spot for over 30 days before moving to another site.

Alligator snappers spend most of their time sitting on the bottom of the body of water with their mouths open wide. In the floor of their mouths is a bifurcated, wormlike tongue that they wiggle back and forth to lure unsuspecting fish into their mouths.

They will eat anything that they actively encounter, however, including carrion, nuts, small mammals, birds, and even other turtles.

When out of their aquatic habitat, alligator snappers mostly gape at their captors and will strike with great speed at a finger or other body part that wanders too close.

The strength and biting power of their jaws has been grossly exaggerated. However, human flesh is much softer than the broom handle that is often bitten in half in local folktales.

Even though alligator snapping turtles are thoroughly aquatic, they have lungs and must occasionally rise to the surface and inhale air. If an alligator snapper or any other turtle is caught in a turtle trap that is totally submerged, the turtle will eventually drown without a way to surface to breathe. It is therefore important for those who trap turtles to be certain one end of the trap is above the water to provide breathing space for the turtles in the nets.

Unfortunately, on occasion the water may rise overnight, and turtles may drown before the trapper comes back to check the nets.

Over trapping has depleted alligator snapping turtle populations, and the alligator snapper is considered a species of concern in every state within its range. Now that it is unlawful in Arkansas to collect or harm this species in any way, alligator snapper populations have a good chance of recovering in this state.

For more information contact the Department of Biological Sciences at Arkansas State University at biology@astate.edu.

Joy B. Trauth is a Ph.D. candidate in environmental sciences and an instructor in the Department of Biological Sciences at ASU. Stan E. Trauth is a professor of zoology in the Department of Biological Sciences at ASU.
Alligator snapping turtle: Arkansas giant worth saving

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• AR Press: Alligator snapping turtle: Arkansas giant worth saving - W von Papineäu, Wed Aug 3 06:37:33 2005