How Do Alligator Snapping Turtles Work?

This positively prehistoric-looking freshwater turtle is the largest in North America -- and it catches fish by wiggling a worm-like lure. Learn more about alligator snappers in this episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://animals.howstuffworks.com/reptiles/alligator-snapping-turtle.htm

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Brainstyck, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey Brainstuff, Lauren Vogelbaum.
Here question, but what does the biggest freshwater turtle in
North America have to do with a household cleaning implement?
The answer involves a well worn bit of folk wisdom.

(00:23):
A legend has it that the alligator snapping turtle can
split a wooden broomstick in half with a single bite.
These are big reptiles. They commonly reach about one hundred
and seventy five pounds that's eighty kilos, and they have
an impressive byte strength, hence the name. The zoologist Peter
Charles Howard Pritchard actually tested this claim for his nineteen

(00:44):
eighty nine book The Alligator Snapping Turtle Biology and Conservation,
when he pestered an alligator snapper weighing near that known
limit with a brand new broomstick. It grabbed hold of
the wood. The bite went deep, but failed to break
the broomstick. However, as Pritchard tried to rest the stick free,
the turtle finished the job, splitting the handle between its jaws.

(01:07):
It turns out that they have a bite force of
about one thousand pounds or four hundred and fifty kilos,
which means that they can snap through bone, so probably
avoid pestering these creatures. Alligator snappers deserve some respect as
living creatures, not only because mishandling one could cost you
a finger. Still, the turtles aren't normally aggressive around people.

(01:29):
If you live in the United States north of the
Rio Grande and east of the Rocky Mountains, you've probably
seen the alligator snapper's smaller cousin, the common snapping turtle.
By most standards, the common snapper isn't that small. Its
shell can measure over eighteen inches long that's forty five
centimeters and anywhere from nine to thirty five pounds that's

(01:50):
four to sixteen kilos. This reptile far out weighs most
of the sliders and painted turtles that share its native waters,
but alligator snappers range for about that size too much bigger.
The species is sexually dimorphic, meaning that there are distinct
differences in size or appearance between male and female specimens.

(02:12):
Adult female alligator snappers are about the same size as
the largest common snapping turtles, but the adult males can
be twice that length and about five times heavier or
even more. Those titans qualify as some of the biggest
freshwater turtles alive today, and here on North American soil,
their size is totally unrivaled. Despite their names, though, the

(02:35):
common snapping turtle and alligator snappers aren't closely related. The
common snapper has an upper shell that's plated and smoothish
and a long, flexible neck. The alligator snappers shell has
three prominent ridges with spikes that look a little bit
like giant rose thorns and a much shorter neck. Both
have long tails with rows of sort of comb like

(02:58):
ridges called tubercles. The alligator snapper has similar prominent ridges
around its face, neck, and feet. The alligator snapper will
further be gray brown too dark brown in color, has
a large head with a hooked beak, and unlike other snappers,
their eyes are located on the sides of their head.
They really look like miniature kaiju. If you've never seen one,

(03:20):
look up pictures the next time you get a chance.
Alligator snappers live in the southern parts of the United
States in bodies of water that drain into the Gulf
of Mexico. Based on pretty recent research from the twenty teens,
there are at least two existing species, the alligator snappers
of the Swanee River in Georgia to Florida and the
ones that live further west and north. There's a proposed

(03:44):
third species for the Apalachicola River around the Florida Panhandle,
but this is the sort of thing that biologists seem
to enjoy arguing about. Unlike most semi aquatic turtles, alligator
snappers almost never leave the water except two lay eggs,
which the female turtles do on dry land in clutches
of ten to sixty. Alligator snappers do most of their

(04:06):
basking beneath the water's surface, ischeeing the logs and dry
rock piles where other reptiles soak up sunlight. They have
an affinity for deep rivers, but they're equally at home
in swamps, ponds, lakes, and canals. They're solitary creatures and
only come together to mate the hatchlings are on their own.
The turtles are most active at night, which is when

(04:29):
they forage for food. Menu options include water, plants, fruits, seeds,
various dead things, and all sorts of live prey items
like frogs, snakes, snails, salamanders, leeches, crustaceans, other turtles and
even ducks, muskrats, beavers, and young crocodilians. Alligator snappers can
taste compounds in the water that lead them to their prey,

(04:53):
but fish are their dietary cornerstone, and instead of chasing
them down, the turtles use la under. The alligator snapper's
tongue is a blood filled appendage that's pink in color
and shaped like a worm. By wriggling this and keeping
the rest of its body absolutely still, the turtle draws

(05:13):
fish into its open maw. They're the only species in
the world that does this. An alligator snapping turtle can
hold its breath for fifty minutes straight, giving it plenty
of time to wait for some curious critter to swim
within striking distance. Adult alligator snappers stay underwater so long
that they sometimes boast a carpet of algae along their

(05:35):
upper bodies. When algae grows on their shells, heads, and limbs,
it helps the turtles blend into muddy river bottoms, rendering
them all but invisible to fish. Hatchlings and juveniles are
beset by many predators, from raccoons to river otters, but
humans are the only species that adults have to fear

(05:55):
due to a fad for turtle soup. In the nineteen
sixties and seventies, populations of alligator snaps declined and even
disappeared from rivers throughout their historic range. Commercial fishers were
harvesting tons every day in some places. A commercial harvest
has since been banned, though Mississippi and Louisiana allow restricted
recreational harvest. Nonetheless, these animals are considered threatened or even

(06:19):
endangered in some areas, and are still at risk from
human activities in and around their habitats, from fishing and
other recreation to housing and industrial development. The US Fish
and Wildlife Service has been working on surveying their populations
to learn more about how we can better protect them.
If it stays out of danger, an alligator snapper can

(06:40):
live a few decades in the wild. One captive specimen
was at least seventy years, four months and twenty six
days of age when it finally passed. Today's episode is
based on the article Alligator snapping Turtle's lore prey with
a wriggling wormlike tongue appendage on how Stuff Were dot Com,

(07:00):
written by Mark Mancini. Brain Stuff is production of iHeartRadio
in partnership with how stuffworks dot Com and is produced
by Tyler Klang. For more podcasts Myheart Radio, visit the
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