Reptile & Amphibian Forums

So, about 7 years ago my friend tells me he has an Alligator snapping turtle I can have for free. Okay, why not. Always thought alligator snapper were the ultimate turtle, never could find one or purchase on locally because I live in illinois.

Show up at his house, no way is it a alligator snapper. If it was just a regular common I would have told him I didn't want it, but this ones color is unlike any common I have ever caught.... ever and I have caught and released one hell of alot of snappers in my day. Extremely light brown shell and an overall light-yellow wash skin tone. So I decide to take him.

Kept him for about two years, he had about an 10 inch shell length at the end of his stay with me. But, I was ggetting a little tired of cleaning the tank and what not and my cousins has a man made pond around 60-75 yards long with an over abundance of frogs, fish and crawfish.

So I figure, what the hell it won't be hard for him to survive in this little pond, theres food eveywhere, I am kind of sick of the extra maintnence that comes with the extra size hes putting on. So I let him go there.

Lost interests in going turtle hunting till about a wek ago, when my two little cousins wanted to go turtle hunting so I broguth them. I'm telling them about the one snapper I had(elmo) that I think might have been a leucistic(because as I grew older I learned about morphs genetics-got some morph boas right now) They want to see what a lucy snapper looks like so I look it up and find them priced at $2,500.

Do they still sell at this price? If so, who wants to shoot me?

lol, nice story. Ive heard ones like that but most I have heard were along the lines of they caught an albino, took some pictures then let it go. Now thats a kick where it counts since they go for $3000 . "Leucistics" can sell anywhere from $1500 to $3000 depending on how nice the turtle is. You could have had a Hypo which are anywhere from $700 to $2500 again depending on how nice a colors. So the turtle you had could be worth anywhere from $500 to $3000 so basically go back there and see if you can find it, lol.

Mitch

he looked like this

http://forums.kingsnake.com/reply.php?action=reply&id=1689836,1690102&catid=34

his shell and head were a little dark, leaning more towards dark orang/light brown... still very stunning.

There are two creeks and one marsh land not even a mile away from the pond I let him go in. Going to buyt turtle traps for each and just keep trapping turtles this season until I find him, or till I don't.

The one creek has TONS of commons in it... Really muddy and very shallow in alot of areas, caught two huge comons a fews years back there. Was somewhat surprised to find them both with twenty feet of each other, till I looked at the tails and guesstimated each to be of different sex, possibly about to mate. Kept em in a kiddy pool in my back yard for a couple of weeks, fed em, let them out to walk around ect...

Theres just something about these guys that interests me immensly, their behaviore and what not. Like to catch em, observe them for w hile and set them free.

One day I came out to the kiddy pool and saw one on top of the other and att it trying to dominate it in an odd way, got scared and broke em up... then read up about those behaiors(mating?) and let them go in the same spot the next day.

Let three pretty big wild caught snappers(one of them being huge) go in the same creek last night, me and my cousins walked the creek jus to check it out and there were tracks EVERYWHERE along the mud.

Theres something about this creek that draws snappers in, maybe the big carp that struggle through the shallows I've seen at times. Being that this creek is only about 2 hundred yeards away form the bond I released him in, and snapers seem to thrive there, I got my fingers crossed.

damn messed up the link again... he looked like this.

http://board.reptilechannel.com/Uploads/Images/fdf6e757-ce6d-4441-8fbe-7c77.jpg

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