Snapping Turtle

At a glance

Snapping Turtle (Chelydra serpentina) is an IUCN Least Concern freshwater turtles regulated in 16 of 66 jurisdictions tracked by CatchRules across the U.S. and Canada.

The strictest bag limit is 1 (North Dakota); the most generous is 15 (Pennsylvania).

Across 6 jurisdictions with stated minimum sizes, the average minimum is 12.0 in.

Confirmed by 102,887 research-grade iNaturalist observations, with Ontario, Texas, and New York the top jurisdictions by observation count.

Notable details

• Unlike most turtles, snapping turtles cannot fully retract into their shell.
• Adults typically weigh 10–35 pounds, with some individuals exceeding 70 pounds.
• True omnivores — they eat plants, fish, frogs, birds, and carrion.
• Females may travel up to a mile overland from water to find a nesting site.
• Their neck can lunge forward nearly the full length of their shell to snap.

Where Snapping Turtle are seen

• Ontario22,897 iNat obs
• Texas6,355 iNat obs
• New York6,169 iNat obs
• Virginia5,112 iNat obs
• North Carolina4,348 iNat obs
• Maryland4,313 iNat obs

Jurisdictions with rules for Snapping Turtle

• ArkansasUnited States · official source
• FloridaUnited States · official source
• MassachusettsUnited States · official source
• MissouriUnited States · official source
• New JerseyUnited States · official source
• OhioUnited States · official source

Background

The common snapping turtle (Chelydra serpentina) is a large freshwater turtle of the family Chelydridae. Its natural range extends from southeastern Canada, southwest to the edge of the Rocky Mountains, as far east as Nova Scotia and Florida. This species and the larger alligator snapping turtles are the only Macrochelys species in this family found in North America (though the common snapping…

Background excerpt adapted from Wikipedia's Snapping Turtle article (CC BY-SA). Visit Wikipedia for the full entry.