Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Is it normal for snappers to live in colorado?? Cause at work today my boss found a five pound snapper in a empty lake were digging out. And Well this is probably the luckiest turtle ever. He got loaded in to a scraper and then dropped in to a fill pile. he also found another one last week. Any thoughts??

Conant's book on Reptiles of Eastern North America has them inhabiting most of eastern Colorado.

Actually Common Snapping Turtles are probably the most common species of turtle in Colorado and I catch them all the time. This is a picture of one that I caught this year.

yup that looks like the one and its about the same size too. these creatures are amazingly tough. after getting scraped up in a scraper then dumped with a load of abot 20 tons of dry clay and only getting a tiny scute damage and some minor cuts!!... maybe i should name him lucky. Well i released him into a safe pond but still crazy, i thought they only lived south of colorado like texas and in the southern states.

You might be thinking perhaps of alligator snappers. THe common snapper populates all of eastern north America, including Canada.

Ian

how far north do snappers range in canada? just curious.

That I'm unsure but compared to how far north Canada reaches, not much. They are native to southern Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, and probably Quebec and the Maritime provinces. They certainly inhabit all around the great lakes and probably extend the farthest north on the canadian sheild in Ontario.

Ian

Definitely Quebec. They are quite common in southern Quebec. They can also be found in New Bruswick and Nova Scotia. They seem tio range farthest north in Manitoba with an old record from North Athabaska.