Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello,
I wanted to take an inventory of the snapping turtles in my local lake and eventually use the information in a research project. I wanted to know the best way to mark common snappers that will not harm the turtle. if anyone has any ideas please let me know. thanks!
Bob

Hi Bob, looking forward to seeing the photos of the huge snapper that you caught. As to marking snappers for your research project I'm not sure what to do without harming the snappers. I thought of rubberbands at the base of the tail or in between the tail keels. I would be worried about the bands cutting off circulation though especially on growing snappers. Or a permanent black marker on one of the claws might work temporarily. What kind of a reasearch project are you thinking of doing? Hope this helps.

the easiest way is to use a file to make small (1/4' or so)notches in the scutes at the edges of the shell.permanent,heal very quickly,and the only hazard is a pissed off snapper.
just make up a coding system thats easy to remember,like mark the right side for males,left for females,etc.then you can individually mark the scutes to further differentiate between them.
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0.0.1 cb baby eastern mud (also ridiculously cute)
0.0.1 cb reeve's turtle (george)
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1.2 cb'08 kenyan sand boas(1 albino,1 anery,1 normal)
1.0 cb'08 jungle carpet
1.1 stenodactylus geckos
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1.0 cb '03 homo sapien(kaelan,6)
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