What kind of turtle is this?

[Henro]

Guess it might be a snapper, but it did was not aggressive...

Could it be a large, elderly box turtle?

I don't have a clue on how to tell, but I kept my fingers well away from this guy... /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[Henro]

Front view...

 

[Henro]

Rear view...

 

[jpr62902]

That's definitely a snapper. Be very careful. Mean little suckers.

 

[DaveNay]

No bout adoubt it. Snapper.

Dave

 

[LarryRB]

Looking it up, the basic nomenclature is a, "Ibiteus"
sub nomenclature, "fingeroff"

 

[PineRidge]

I see large turtles on my property on a regular basis. Most of the time after a heavy rain you will see a female hovering over a hole that she has dug in the soft ground dropping eggs (see picture). She then covers the eggs with mud never to return.

 

[shvl73]

One way to tell, tickle it on it's nose with an ungloved hand. Snappers seem to like that. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[orb]

Our dog found one a little bigger than that
last year and decided to take a sniff. Faster then the eye could see, he found out exactly how they got their name. Nice size chunk off the tip.... he don't bother the turtles any more!

I was watching the whole thing from a distance trying to get his attention away from the turtle but he is a little thick headed sometimes. It was truly within a blink of an eye that he got nipped. I didn't even realize the turtle had done anything to him until I saw the blood gushing from his face. Amazing a cold blooded animal can move that fast!

 

[DAP]

Yessir Bill ... its a snapper - a "Common Snapper" as opposed to an "Aligator Snapper"

The smooth shell identifies it as such. The alligator snapper has a horned and scaled shell.