Snapping Turtle Chelydra serpentina. Reptile. Photograph taken by the author. Copyright © 2025 Now I Wonder. All rights reserved.

Complete Guide To The Snapping Turtle

ByChristine Species Guides

Snapping Turtle

  • This species BITES!

Snapping Turtle Images

How To Identify Snapping Turtles

  • Snapping Turtles grow to an average of 18.5 inches (47 cm) but can get much bigger with age and plenty of food.
  • They have:
    • Massive heads, with hooked jaws powered by strong biting muscles
    • Long, tapering tails spiked with large, sawtooth, triangular scales
    • Small, thin, cross-shaped plastrons
    • Domed carapaces with three rows of longitudinal keels (especially prominent in young turtles) and serrated scutes along the hind edges.
    • Toes end in long, strong, curved claws
  • Snapping Turtles like freshwater habitats with soft mud bottoms and lots of vegetation, where they hunt by ambush.
    • They bury themselves in the substrate, leaving only their eyes and nostrils exposed, then lunge out and snap at passing prey.
  • Snapping Turtles are omnivorous and eat:
    • Amphibians like Bullfrogs, Green Frogs, Green Tree Frogs, and Squirrel Tree Frogs.
    • Aquatic invertebrates such as crayfish.
    • Carrion.
    • Fish.
    • Birds such as ducks and goslings.
    • Small mammals like muskrats.
    • Fellow reptiles like Northern Water Snakes.
    • Aquatic plants.

Snapping Turtle Notes

  • Snapping Turtles can reach truly impressive sizes and weights, as in the case of the Snapping Turtle shown basking on a creek-side rock in the image gallery above.
  • In general, Snapping Turtles are bad-tempered and aggressive, especially in comparison to other turtle species.
    • Snapping Turtles tend to be most aggressive out of the water and will snap at anything that encroaches on their space.
    • When out of the water, they may feel more vulnerable because:
      • They are slow-moving on land and thus can’t flee threats quickly.
      • They can’t retract their bodies into their shells.
      • Their plastrons are reduced to mere cross-shaped structures that expose much of their soft bellies. While underwater, Snapping Turtles dig themselves into the substrate so no predator can attack them from below and they right themselves easily. But on land, these reptiles
  • Snapping Turtles stay in the water unless nesting, when females wander to find appropriate nest sites.
  • Snapping Turtles mate from May to November.
  • Female Snapping Turtles lay about 25 eggs in shallow nests, which hatch in about three months (Martof et al. 1980).
    • Baby Snapping Turtles are only about the size of a golf ball when they first hatch.

Snapping Turtle Classification

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Reptilia

Order

Testudines

Family

Chelydridae (Snapping Turtles)

Genus

Chelydra

Species

C. serpentina

Binomial Name

Chelydra serpentina

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Christine
Christine is the creator and author of NowIWonder.com, a website dedicated to the animals and plants that share our world, and the science that helps us understand them. Inspired by lifelong exploration and learning, Christine loves to share her knowledge with others who want to connect with wild faces and wild spaces.
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