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GAZETTE-TIMES (Corvallis, Oregon) 26 July 08 Snapping turtle’s quest ends abruptly - No home found for the invasive species (Theresa Novak)
A mossy-looking snapping turtle found walking along White Oak Drive east of Corvallis on June 30 has been humanely destroyed after no suitable home could be found for her.
The case is sad, said Susan Barnes, a spokeswoman for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, but it also is emblematic of the dilemma facing wildlife managers regarding all invasive species.
“I’d sort of hoped (your reporter) wouldn’t personalize this particular turtle too much,” Barnes, who is based in Clackamas, said Thursday. Although it’s understandable that the public might be sympathetic to a reptile that had survived for at least 20 years in the wild, it’s important to look at the big picture when it comes to invasive species and their impact on the native ecosystem, she said.
Snapping turtles are native to the southeastern part of the United States, and they are hardy. Even found in oxygen-deprived locations such as cattle sewage ponds, they are voracious, grow huge and are mean-tempered. Their powerful bite can take off a finger.
In Oregon, snapping turtles’ prey foods might include baby ducks and, more worrisome, the young of the smaller, less aggressive and plummeting population of the native Western pond turtle. This reptile, which used to be common in ponds found in farmland, already is under attack from yet another invasive species, the American bullfrog. To these wide-mouthed and aggressive frogs, the Western pond turtle hatchlings are “like Oreo cookies” — crunchy on the outside, with a soft and tasty center.
Bullfrogs also are a menace to other frogs, including the increasingly rare native red-legged frog.
Still, nobody is blaming the invaders, and Barnes said that ODFW officials tried to find a location for the old, mossy snapping turtle, which weighed more than 20 pounds and was almost two feet long. They’d hoped it might be useful in an educational exhibit about the impact of invasive species.
And just how did this lone female snapping turtle become an invader? It likely had been a pet at one time, captured from the wild back in its native range and brought to Oregon. It may have been released when it outgrew its enclosure or when someone moved or grew tired of it and released it. Barnes said that is both illegal and a bad idea, but people still do it.
Because snapping turtles are so aggressive and have such slow metabolic rates, the turtle no doubt lived for a long time alone, perhaps in a Willamette slough or a pond. She may have been in search of a mate when she went on her last journey and was found along the road.
Her life ended on July 14, when she was anesthetized and then destroyed, mostly probably by decapitation. Again due to their slow metabolic rate, turtles are difficult to humanely destroy using an overdose of anesthetic, which is the most usual method of euthanizing ailing or unwanted pets.
The contents of the turtle’s stomach will be studied to determine what it had been eating, but that analysis had not been completed as of Thursday.
Anyone who finds a turtle wandering far from its domain is asked to take the turtle (avoiding its head) to the nearest office of the ODFW. For more information, on local and invasive turtles, see www.willametteturtles.com.
Snapping turtle’s quest ends abruptly

GAZETTE-TIMES (Corvallis, Oregon) 28 July 08 Editorial: No easy answer for snapping invader
That old algae-covered snapping turtle found June 30, trudging along White Oak Drive probably was hunting for a mate.
Long on instance and short on brains, it didn’t know it was on Oregon’s list of Most-Unwanted Species.
The old turtle probably started life as a hatchling in someone’s aquarium. She lived in the wild for 20 years, growing to 20 inches long and weighing 20 pounds.
But Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife officials know it can’t be left in the wild. The ODFW is among the agencies struggling to find a way to protect native ecosystems threatened by everything from invasive microorganisms to mammals, plants, birds, mollusks and fish — and the common snapping turtle.
It’s not easy, but part of that effort is convincing the public that some of nature’s creatures — when they grow too much in number and start eating or crowding out all other species in their path — must be either relocated or destroyed.
That’s easier when you’re talking about the invasive grasses carpeting Central, southern and eastern Oregon or oyster-drilling organisms. But when it comes to relocating a huge, evil-tempered-but-impressive snapping turtle, the task is tougher.
The ODFW isn’t the bad guy here.
For two weeks, wildlife officials tried to find a place for the old snapper; somewhere she could serve as an educational exhibit, or just live out her days with no chance of escape. Returning to the wild is not an option.
The snapping turtle, common throughout the eastern, southern and middle of the U.S., is a threat to our native Oregon western pond turtle and western painted turtle, which already are under heavy attack from multiple invasive species.
Bullfrogs eat their young, and the much larger snappers do, too. Invasive weeds crowd out the plants they need for nests. They’re torn apart by dogs, raccoons and ’possums. People destroy their habitat and hunt them (illegally) for food.
Susan Barnes, an ODFW spokeswoman in Clackamas, said officials tried for two weeks to find a home for the snapper. Then they gave it a shot to dull its pain and either cut off or crushed its head — necessary when you want to kill an animal that dates back 200 million years. They removed its stomach contents to study what the turtle had been eating.
Barnes said the only calls she received about the turtle were from people who wanted to eat it.
Another respondent to our online forum, Dan Skogen of Marion, Iowa, disagreed: “I called the ODFW a week and a half ago and left them a message saying I could take the turtle. I live in the midwest where they are legal to have, but the ODFW never returned my call.”
We contacted Skogen, who is the owner of Atkoh Turtle Farm, and we asked him why he wanted the turtle.
Skogen replied: “I don’t sell any adult turtles, but I do sell about 95 percent of our turtle hatchlings to people who sell them overseas (5 percent we keep and raise ourselves) It depends on the exporter we sell to but hatchlings overseas can be for pets, research, food and medicinal purposes.”
So, nobody wanted to keep the turtle as a pet, and our sympathies go to the ODFW for doing what was necessary. We hope they never make the turtles available for food, however. Imagine if even more people went looking for snapping turtles to eat and just happened to find the native turtles instead ...
Yet we can’t celebrate the demise of a turtle that was far from home (even if she probably ate baby ducklings). Her only real offense is being out of balance with Oregon’s ecosystem; too successful at survival and so aggressive that natural predators have little chance.
Again, we come to the conclusion that humans are integral to the problem and its solution, with more awareness and public education the key.
Editorial: No easy answer for snapping invader