Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I got home today after a few days of being out of town and check on my turtles that are in my 220 gallon pond in my back yard. I notice that my large snapping turtle(around 10 inches) was buried in the dirt with his nose poking out and you could still see his whole shell. My girlfriend said he had buried himself their on tuesday and he had been there since. Is this a common thing for snapping turtles to do? Could it maybe been to cool down since it has been a little hot lately here or what could be the reason for this? Thanks in advance.

Mitch

I've seen wild snappers do this. It may well be a response to the heat, but he may also be trying to set himself up for ambushing fish, much as alligator snappers and softshells do.

I do not think it was to ambush fish or anything because I forgot to specify that he was out of the water. He buried himself in the dirt on the outer banks of my pond.

Thanks in advance,

Mitch