The bayous of the south eastern states of the USA are groggy, wet and smelly. But they are also beautiful and bursting with major ecological stamps, when people think of swamps in America they think alligators everywhere and yes, alligators do reside there but there are many other dangerous animals that lurk within the bayou. Snakes, large predatory fish, even kestrels and falcons rarely. But there's one type of creature that stands above all, even alongside the largest alligators, this big guy could bite your arm off if it so pleased. The Alligator snapping turtle is not to be ignored.
Where is the AI generated picture???? That ones real!! I realised the website I use to edit this page and add new parts has a stock images section.. yes laugh all you like the cuttlefish picture is staying.
ANYWAYS the alliator snapping turtle is a menace in the south east swamps of the USA, and is usually bigger than the picture to the left (the guy on the left is a common snapping turtle), these big boys can grow up to 150 ish pounds. Thats about 68kg.
They are a big lump of a shell with a melon sized head and a bite force of about 1000psi... a humans is 160. Not forgetting its hooked beak which is used to slice anything it bites if it doesn't get crushed already from that bite force. Also LOOK AT THEM CLAWS, they are huge and sharp and could do some major damage even though theyre at the end of them stubby little legs. I first seen these guys on the show Deadly 60 and when I did, I never wanted to go swimming again.
So how do these guys hunt? Whats their ecological status? Why are they so ugly? What are they related to? Why so many questions????
Lets go one by one. Alligator snapping turtles or Macrochelys Temminckii if you are very fancy, sits at the bottom of the bayou lying in wait for its next victim. What's super cool about these behemoths is they have a loose piece of skin at the end of their tongue, yes disgusting, which acts like a worm and lures prey in. As soon as they're close enough the turtle stretches its head out much further than you can imagine it doing so and crushes its prey with its jaws, no teeth needed. Done and dusted in seconds.
Alligator snapping turtles are top of the food chain along side alligators themselves, as soon as they mature no animal dares attempt to predate on these monsters. They are most vunerable just after hatching like most turtles are, but as soon they grow up it's free game. Since 2023 Alligator snapping turtles have been listed as a threatned species and is now considered endangered in some states in America which is worrying because these guys are facinating and look like actual dinosaurs! This is because of habitat loss and hunting for flesh and for their skeletons.
Macrochelys is a genus which is very specific, only two extant (not extinct) species exist today, our turtle in the spotlight today and his grumpy cousin the Suwanee alligator snapping turtle. Macrochelys is one of the two extant genus in the family Chelydridae which is where all snapping turtles come from, the other being Chelydra.
So that's it for part 2! The alligator snapping turtle is terrifying ,end of story. You WILL lose and arm if you mess around with it, though they are extraordinary animals.
Thanks for Reading!
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