State Residents. State Seal. State Shell. State Slogan. State Snack. State Song. State Tree. Official State Reptile of New York The "common snapping turtle" was adopted as the official state reptile of New York in a more accurate adjective would be "impressive" or "intimidating".
All State Reptiles Snapping Turtle Facts The snapping turtle chelydra serpentina has a relatively small shell that does not cover its limbs or tail snapping turtles cannot retract their heads under the shell.
New York. State Reptile: NYsenate. All Categories of State Symbols. Videos Aggressive snapping turtle. Don't blink at ! Video of Aggressive snapping turtle. Edit Snapping Turtle Page. There are a few smaller ones popping there heads out once in a while, but this guy has go to be 3 feet. I have him submerging on video but left my camera on Shore the few times i could have gotten a good shot of him.
I saw one in a pond outside of Keene Valley, NY in It had definitive spikes and was quite big. Unfortunately, I did not have a camera. While fishing with my cousin on Amber Lake we spotted something ridged moving slowly along. We paddled over and as we got close it sped up and slipped under water like a submarine. The biggest thing we ever saw and although we continued to fish in Amber Lake we never put our hands in the water. Well last year while having coffee about 7AM on White Lake attached to Amber my buddy and I were gazing into the water off our dock and then the ground moved.
Must have been hit by a prop of a boat. Googled it and yes it was 1 of those alligator jobs from the south. Told my cousin and we wondered if by chance it could be the same one from all those years ago. I thought it was ridiculous until I read the stories here.
Lol, ok, ok… it was a beautiful spring morning in April, about 5 years ago at my home on a private man-made lake in the southern Finger Lakes region of New York State.
We were in the throes of deciding what we should do with the carcass when we realized it was slowly rising, turning and sinking. But wait! Lol… As I watched, absolutely spellbound, a second creature joined the dance, and I began to realize I had intruded on a spring mating ritual between a pair of alligator snapping turtles — pretty rare in NY, and absolutely unforgettable. Yup I grew up in the Glens Falls area and we used to catch them big and small up and down the Champlain Canal.
As far as I can tell common snappers all have the smooth shells even as babies with few ridges. The ones with with the bumpy spikes are either an unknown species that looks just like them or burry deep enough in the mud to get through the winter.
I saw one 50 years ago with binoculars in tiny Duane Lake, north of the Catskills. I wrote it up for a school composition assignment. Others reported seeing it, too. Was kayaking today in North South Lake with a group of individuals and we saw it. Massive turtle. I find all the comments here extremely validating but that last one in particular. Did any of your party happen to get a pic, Bronce? We all were paddling towards the south end of the lake. We then saw a shell with the small spikes on the surface of the water.
As we got near it we can tell it was a massive turtle. We left it alone. I was up in the Adirondacks back in , and I was staying with my then girlfriend and her family, who rented out this old house by a large pond for a week in July. The property came with a couple of kayaks and a canoe. If you followed one end of the pond it took you down this winding creek that was rather wide and seemed to stretch for miles through the woods. The family wrote him off, but I was intrigued.
Later that night, right before sunset, the brother and I took the canoe out to go fishing. We had no luck, so we started heading back to shore. As we were paddling, the water near the canoe started to ripple and this absolutely enormous turtle, likely 4 feet wide, passed directly beneath the boat. The two of us completely froze and watched as this creature moved to a spot about 30 feet from us. Within moments the turtle was joined by at least two others of equal size, and they appeared to feast on fish before submerging.
By this point, the sun had set. We paddled back and tried to explain to the rest of the family what we saw, but it was laughed off. Like the author, I have spent years telling people about it while also searching for similar accounts. Thank you! We just saw a huge Alligator snapping turtle yesterday in Rockland Lake, NY We were terrified bc at first sight we thought it was an actual alligator.
Nobody believed us, so I started searching for reptiles with large black ridges with a long tail and then your article came up We were kayaking when we saw it. Thanks for validating our experience when everyone thinks we are wrong about what we saw! I saw Alligator Snapping Turtles adults, hatchling, female laying eggs. It was between and I know what a Common Snapping turtle looks like and what adult and hatchling Alligator Snapping Turtles look like. This is a viable population living there.
Probably individuals were released by people who were on vacation in Florida and brought them back to Long Island with them. Your email address will not be published. New York has only two populations, one in the southeast portion of the state and another smaller one in the western region. The map turtle is a large species that, due to its size, is sometimes confused with the snapper but is only known to occur in Lake Erie, the Susquehanna drainage, and the Hudson River.
The spiny softshell, which looks more like a pancake with legs than a turtle, occurs mostly in the western third of the state. The stinkpot, or the common musk turtle, is a small turtle with a smooth, dark, high domed carapace. It emits a foul smelling odor when disturbed. A close relative, the eastern mud turtle, occurs in New York only on Long Island.
This threatened turtle is similar to the stinkpot, but the carapace dome slopes off sharply in the rear, the plastron is fitted with two hinges instead of one like the musk and the skin is often spotted or streaked with yellow. Five kinds of ocean-going turtles may be found in New York coastal waters from time to time. For one species, the Atlantic Ridley, recent research suggests that the Long Island Sound may function as a critical habitat for juveniles. This is a very important find because this endangered sea turtle is one of the rarest of all the marine turtles.
The green, hawksbill, leatherback, and loggerhead may also be found off the coast at certain times of the year. If you see a turtle of any kind crossing the road, try to stop and assist it across in the direction it is travelling. Many pregnant females are killed by cars every year. With large snapping turtles, be sure to shuttle them without lifting them off the ground.
Avoid their face, because they are fairly aggressive and have a nasty bite. The New York State Department of Health forbids the sale of turtles under five inches because they may be carriers of salmonella bacteria. If you touch a turtle, regardless of its size, be sure to wash your hands carefully and thoroughly to prevent illness.
We suggest not to capture any wild turtles to keep as pets. But if you should, keep them only for a few months in the summer and release them well before it turns colder. It is important to release them in the exact spot where you found them. All New York turtles hibernate, and many of them return to the same hibernation sites year after year.
If they do not relocate these sites, it may harm the animals in the long run. Proper habitat is essential to the survival of all animals, so do your part to provide them with suitable areas to live wetlands, non-polluted waterways, undeveloped shorelines, etc. Turtles have lived in New York longer than most other animals, including humans.
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