Snapping Turtles

As I’ve alluded to elsewhere, one of the really cool things about Canada is that humanity hasn’t killed off all the big interesting animals here yet (unlike in the UK); as well as that, Canada has turtles!

In the UK, we don’t have any native turtles; occasionally, you get the odd feral Red-Eared Slider taking up residence when its original owners decided that they couldn’t cope with a full-sized adult. When I was young, the UK used to have quite a few tortoises about the place of assorted species, but they’re now very much rarer since the import of them was (quite rightly – it was barbaric) banned.

As a wildlife enthusiast, living in the same country as turtles is awesome! There are several species in Canada, but the biggest (and undoubtedly stroppiest) is the Snapping Turtle (Chelydra serpentina); I don’t ever seem to get tired of watching these things.

Looking at a Snapper almost feels like looking back through time – they look so primeval in some respects; they rather remind me of reconstructions of the age of ruling reptiles.

Looking back at me, I sometimes wonder what they’re thinking: most likely, it’ll be along the lines of “I hope that fat bloke falls in – there’s good eating on one of those”…!