A deceased relative of Swifty,Scott's turtle

He may have died from drinking that fake Dr. Pepper diet crap...lol.

Thats pretty cool looking skull.

Nows about the time the turtles move from the lake and go across my yard out into the woods into a little rain pond where they lay eggs.
Its pretty cool to see them crossing the yard. Big snapping turtles with alligator looking tails get up and boogie through the yard since they are taller.
The smaller box turtle takes quite a bit longer to cross the yard since their legs arent as long and they kind of scoot across the grass.
I seen a snapper one time with a huge chunk of mud on its back crossing. The mud weighed more than the turtle. I thought its shell was ripped open when I seen it at first. Them snappers get fussy when you get close. They try and jump at you and you can hear them hiss.
Id say its around 500 yards that they travel to get out there. Dont know how they know the ponds out there but they go out there every year.

Alligator snapper facts
-2nd only to crocodillians in jaw strength
-has a bait on it's tongue that attracts fish into strike zone
- 240 and a 250 pounder kept in zoo
- muskrats,baby gators,waterfowl,nutria,all fair game
- primitive and ancient
- the 2 cavities in the 2nd photo to the rear of the skull are muscle pockets for them jawls
- the eye brows are designed to camo the eyes
They are ugly and mean and best left to themselves

Nice! Swifty sent her condolensces.

A 'normal' adult male alligator snapper is 100 pounds. 200 pounds is a real freak, if it exists.

Randy, alligators can be quite tame. But you must start with small ones.

When I saw the hat I thought you had devil's toenails!

Helen, I made a similar observation. Diet Soda seems to do opposite of what it is supposed to do.

Gotta keep Swifty's morals in tact-NO snapping turtles
Wikopedia discussed the 2 zoos that had those large turtles.
maybe they served them diet Dr.Pepper....

I killed 2 snappers last week and the SS 270 is sitting out ready to get another just spotted.They devastate my water lily stock ponds.I am constantly catching them in/out of the water.When digging plant stock i touch them and scares it out of me.But here in Georgia i have never seen an alligator snapper.Down in Florida i only see alligator and soft shell(softys taste best).They really start about the fall line(an old beach from an old ocean)about the south half of Georgia.The common snappers are much meaner than the alligator snapper.The alligator one is rather passive.
I am guessing the 2 large ones i captured at L. George were 150 pound.You could sit on the ground and hang on to their tail and they could drag you seemingly effortlessly.Their necks extend further and way quicker than is safe.And the soft shells really have a long neck and love to bite-not shy at all.
I wonder if being in captivity has a big effect on zoo turtles getting so large.I know that gators apparently keep growing.William Bartram's reports back in the early 1700's have some interesting observations about gator size.This guy observed indians shooting minature bow and arrows-into the eye of a rabbit from 10 paces.
The welding shop i deal with has a pile of parti colored caps.Many do.Control man control

It's funny that there are no musrats in gator territory.Otters don't even pay them attention though.

The Mississipi River is an endless supply of muskrats??I think Florida gators are just more aggressive, like comparing an LSU Tiger to a U. of Florida gator:>I know that otters eat muskrats as a preffered food too.My 3 dogs can barely handle a muskrat.No chance w/an otter.