Common Eastern Snapping Turtle

This is a mama snapper digging up a little spot to possibly lay her eggs. According to this site (http://ezinearticles.com/?Locating-Snapping-Turtle-Nests-For-Education-…) she may have just dug up a little area to test out the space. I had my dog with me when I found her and I left before I could see whether or not she laid any eggs. Exciting stuff though! Snappers apparently tend to lay their eggs from May into June (some websites said June and July) and they will potentially hatch in August! I marked the egg site and will return frequently, particularly around the August timeframe. It certainly is tough to be a wee little turtle. "The snapping turtle in fact, can lay clutches of 20-50 eggs, but only about 133 of every 1,300 eggs survive to leave the nest. Out of those 133 hatchlings, just 1 will survive to adulthood. Most eggs and hatchlings fall victim to predation within the first 3 years of life, if not before they even hatch."

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