Snapping Turtles

Alex Re

Hello, welcome to another episode of on wildlife. I'm your host, Alex Re. On this podcast, we bring the wild to you. We take you on a journey into the life of a different animal every week. And I guarantee you, you're gonna come out of here knowing more about your favorite animal than you did before. Let's get started on this week's episode. This week, you might not have to travel too far. So grab your bathing suits and some snorkeling gear, because we're headed to the ponds and lakes of North America to talk about our shelled friends, snapping turtles.

So if you're wondering why I'm focusing on specifically snapping turtles this week instead of all kinds of turtles is because there are so many different species of turtles that I just wouldn't be able to cover all of them in one episode. But don't worry, there's going to be a lot of information on this podcast that's not only applicable to snapping turtles, but also a lot of freshwater turtles as well. There are two different species of snapping turtles, the alligator snapping turtle, which is the bigger of the two and the common snapping turtle. And if you're wondering what a snapping turtle looks like, just picture browser from Super Mario Bros with less teeth.

There are some large differences between the common snapping turtle and the alligator snapping turtle, for instance, comes snapping turtles can only grow up to about 14 inches and weigh up to 35 pounds, while the alligator snapping turtle can average about 26 inches, and 175 pounds. And on top of all that common snapping turtles can live to be around 30 years old, while alligator snapping turtles live to be around 20 to 70 years old. Although there have been exceptions to that. The oldest known living alligator snapping turtle lived in the Newport Aquarium in Kentucky. Her name was thunder and she lived to be about 150 years old. She was born over 50 years before sliced bread was invented.

Snapping turtles habitats include lakes, ponds and swamps, and they spend most of their time in the water. They're able to hold their breath for over 15 minutes before they have to come back up for air. And because they spend most of their time in the water, they have webbed feet that's similar to ducks, which makes them really really good swimmers. A lot of snapping turtles are also nocturnal, which means that they sleep during the day and are awake at night.

Turtles are reptiles, which means that they're closely related to lizards and snakes. They're one of the oldest reptile groups in the world, beating alligators, snakes and crocodiles. There are some fossils from turtles, which have been dated to be over 200 million years old. Humans have only been around for about 200,000 years. And because turtles are reptiles, they can't regulate their body temperature the same way that we do. All living organisms have to maintain a state of homeostasis. Basically, what homeostasis means is that your body is stable or an equilibrium. And that can include your body temperature. When humans are in a state of homeostasis, our body temperature is around 98 degrees Fahrenheit, and our body keeps that temperature for us. When it's getting too cold out, our muscles will contract which warms us up. And that's why we shiver when it's really cold out. Turtles and other reptiles are a little different. They're what we call ectotherms, which means that they need to use the environment around them to maintain a stable body temperature. This is why you'll often see them on a log or rock sunbathing, they're actually using the sun to warm up their own body temperature. Another way to say that an animal is an ectotherms is by calling them cold blooded.

Let's take a short break. And when we come back, I'm going to start talking about snapping turtle eating habits and also their most defining feature their shells.

Alright, time for a trivia question. How many hearts does an octopus have a one, B two, C three, or D four.

The answer is C. Three.

We're back and we're going to start talking about snapping turtle eating habits. So snapping turtles are actually omnivores. That means that the eat both plants and animals. They can eat fish, frogs and even other turtles, but they can also eat plants that are found in the water that they spend most of their time in. An alligator snapping turtles

have this really crazy hunting strategy that they use. Basically what they do is lay at the bottom of the lake with their mouths open, revealing their tongue. And what's weird about their tongue is that it looks exactly like a worm. So if you've ever been fishing, you know that a worm can be used as bait to catch a fish. Well, this is exactly what the snapping turtle does. It uses its tongue as bait. And when a curious fish or frog comes towards it, the snapping turtle lunges at them and basically swallows them hold.

And you do not want to get into a fight with one of these guys. They have a bite force of over 1000 pounds, which could easily result in the loss of a few fingers. That bite force is equivalent to the weight of a grand piano. This may be the reason why you don't see snapping turtles at petting zoos. And turtles don't actually have any teeth. They just have beaks, so they have to swallow their food whole instead of chewing it. This is also how I like to eat dinner after not having lunch. Now let's start to talk about a turtles most defining feature their shell. A turtle shell is made out of keratin, which is the same stuff that makes up our fingernails, and some of their bones that are fused together such as their ribs, vertebrae, and something called their pectoral girdle. And that pectoral girdle is basically the bones that make up your shoulder. So turtles can't actually leave their shell. They're stuck with them for life. Unlike a lot of crustaceans, which molt, and they basically leave their shell for a new one when they grow, turtles shells grow with them. The top part of their shell is called the care epis. And the bottom part of the shell is called the plastron. Each Shell has its own specific shell pattern and shape. alligator snapping turtles have a very noticeable shell shape, they have these large spikes on top of their shells. And that's thought to be protection from larger animals. And the outermost portion of the shell is made of keratin, and they're called scutes. And they're basically what makeup the patterns scutes can be shed off over time, and scientists sometimes use scutes to determine how old a turtle is kind of like looking at the rings of a tree.

And because of the nature of their shells, turtles have an interesting problem when it comes to breathing. Reptiles usually breathe by expanding their rib cage. But turtles can't do this because the rib bones are fused together to make up their shell. So in order to breathe, turtles have to pull back their liver and rotate their pectoral girdle in order to open up their thoracic cavity, which allows them to breathe. Okay, so we're going to take our last little break. And when we come back, I'm going to start talking about how snapping turtles survive in a lake that's completely frozen over during the winter.

If you want more information about snapping turtles, or you want to suggest a new animal for me to talk about, you can email on wildlife

dot com, you can also visit our website@www.on wildlife.org.

Okay, we're back. You may have been asking yourself how do turtles survive the winter when lakes are frozen over? After all, they do spend the majority of their time in the water. Well, snapping turtles and a lot of other freshwater turtles have adopted a lot of really awesome mechanisms that help them survive during the winter. snapping turtles stay under the water when the lake is frozen over, they're able to do this because they can significantly decrease their metabolic rate. This just means that they need a lot less energy to survive. And their body is also freeze tolerant. They can survive even if some of the water that's in their body freezes. And this last part may sound insane. But turtles can actually take in oxygen through their butts. Well, it's not actually called there but it's called their cloaca. And one of the main functions of the cloaca is excreting waste. They use their clo aykut to take oxygen out of the water, and this allows them to survive without coming up to the surface for air. Speaking of the cloaca one of its other functions is reproductive purposes. So with that being said, let's talk about snapping turtle babies. snapping turtles lay their eggs in nests that they dig underground, and females can actually travel over a mile in order to find a good spot to lay their eggs. That's a long distance for a turtle and females can lay around 40 eggs at a time. And after laying her eggs in a hole. The mother covers the nest with mud so that predators can't find it. And they have to lay so many eggs because most of the babies won't survive. They either get eaten by predators.

Or they don't develop correctly. And I feel bad for these snapping turtle babies because their mom doesn't help them find the lake where she's from, they have to find it themselves. I can barely find my way around the supermarket without my mom's help. They instinctively traveled towards the water. And sometimes they have to travel long distances. But this ensures that only the strongest are able to survive.

Now, if snapping turtles had baby showers, they wouldn't have to be guessing whether the babies were going to be male or female, they would already know. And this is because they have something called temperature dependent sex determination.

Basically, what this means is that the temperature of the environment around the eggs determines whether the babies are going to be male or female. In snapping turtles, hotter temperatures produce male babies, and colder temperatures produce female babies. In humans, you just have a 50% chance of being male and 50% chance of being female. Researchers have a few ideas for why temperature dependent sex determination would be beneficial. Some have hypothesized that males are able to produce more offspring in warmer temperatures, and females are able to produce more offspring in colder temperatures. It's still not entirely known why though, something that you also may not have known is that turtles can actually make a lot of different sounds even though they don't have vocal cords.

The most common sound for a snapping turtle to make is their hissing sound. And they really make this sound when they feel threatened.

Contrary to what you may think snapping turtles are actually really important to the environment around them. Their eggs provide food for other animals like snakes, and raccoons, and they can help clean the environment around them. They're omnivores, which means they eat just about anything. And they can eat dead and decomposing organisms, which actually helps keep the water that they live in clean. snapping turtles, along with almost every other turtle species are being negatively affected by human activities. First of all, people that go fishing in lakes often leave their hooks behind, which eventually gets swallowed by the turtles, and that can cause major organ damage. Also, another big issue that turtles are facing is the runoff of chemicals into lakes. When it rains, chemicals, like pesticides can flow into lakes from different forms, these chemicals can seep into the snapping turtle eggs, and it can cause birth defects where the turtles won't be able to develop properly. eutrophication is another process that's extremely harmful for all freshwater animals. Have you ever seen a lake that's completely green on top? This is all algae. And what happened is a process called eutrophication. It's caused by nutrients otherwise known as fertilizers that run off into the water from farms. When there's too many nutrients, way too much algae grows on the top of the lake. And this can cause dead zones. A dead zone happens when there's no more oxygen in the lake. So all the organisms living there will die. And this can destroy the entire habitat of the snapping turtle.

So as you can see, turtles are plagued by a lot of issues caused by humans. I did find a lot of great organizations that you guys should definitely check out and donate to if you can. There's the turtle rescue League, the clean lakes Alliance and the turtle Conservation Society. These organizations help turtles and also the places that they live in.

Thank you so much for coming on this adventure with me as we explored the world of snapping turtles. You can find the sources that we use for this podcast and links to organizations that we reference@www.on wildlife.org Don't forget to tune in next Wednesday on wherever you listen to podcasts.

And that's On Wildlife.

Jess Avellino

You've been listening to On Wildlife with Alex Re brought to you every Wednesday.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai