Conservation Status: Game (FWCA); Special Concern (SARA; COSEWIC)

Size: 45 cm (18”)

Defining feature(s): Snapping Turtles have large robust limbs and heads as well as a long tail with a row of enlarged, protruding scales.  The jaw is strongly hooked and the plastron is poorly developed.

Other features: The posterior margin of the shell is serrated and the shell may have three distinct ridges running from front to back in younger individuals.

Habitat: Snapping Turtles are generalists that can be found in ponds, streams, rivers, lakes, swamps, marshes and settlement ponds.  They adapt well to disturbed habitats and can be found within urban environments.

Reproduction: Common Snapping Turtles breed in the spring or fall and lay eggs in late May or June.  Females may travel several hundred metres to as much as a kilometer from the water to find a suitable nesting site.  Clutches range in size from 10 to as many as 100 eggs with an average size of 20-40.  Hatching occurs in 65 to 90 days depending upon incubation temperature.