Common Snapping Turtle

Here's a Common Snapping Turtle I met last summer. Though they'll occasionally bask out on a log, they prefer to do semi-basking in shallow water with only their shell above the water line. Your best chance for a "head shot" is when they come up to breathe, which this fella presumably was doing.

Though parts of the southern US have an Alligator Snapping Turtle, the closest taxonomic relatives of the Common Snapping Turtle are probably the Central American Snapping Turtle and the South American Snapping Turtle, both of whom used to be considered subspecies of the Common Snapping Turtle.

August 23, 2022 at Duke Farms
Photo 229694534, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

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