{"id":19,"date":"2011-07-11T18:41:38","date_gmt":"2011-07-11T18:41:38","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2011-07-11T18:49:02","modified_gmt":"2011-07-11T18:49:02","slug":"eastern-snapping-turtle","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/wildlife.wordpresswarriors.com\/index.php\/eastern-snapping-turtle\/","title":{"rendered":"Eastern Snapping Turtle"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>(Chelydra serpentina serpentina)<\/h2>\n<p><\/br><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"204\" src=\"https:\/\/wildlife.wordpresswarriors.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/images\/stories\/wildlife\/st1.jpg\" alt=\"Eastern Snapping Turtle\" height=\"180\" style=\"float: left; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-right: 10px;\" \/>The Eastern Snapping Turtle has a flattened carapace (upper shell) with knobby keels that smooth out with age.&nbsp; They can reach up to 19 inches in length and weighing from 10-35 pounds.&nbsp; It has a large head, small plastron (lower shell), and a long saw-toothed tail on the upper side.&nbsp; The carapace is brown and the plastron is cream to light brown with various degrees of black in it.&nbsp; The skin on the head, neck and limbs is dark brown to black.&nbsp; The large head has a blunt protruding snout.&nbsp; The carapace is often covered with algae.&nbsp; Breeding season is from April to November.&nbsp; Incubation is from 80-90 days and laying of the eggs usually happens in June.&nbsp; The eggs are hard shelled, white and spherical (like ping-pong balls) in shape.&nbsp; They lay their eggs in a flask shaped hole that the females dig in a variety of soils.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"194\" src=\"https:\/\/wildlife.wordpresswarriors.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/images\/stories\/wildlife\/st2.jpg\" alt=\"Eastern Snapping Turtle\" height=\"162\" style=\"margin-top: 10px; float: right; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px;\" \/>The snapping turtle is found throughout the state of Virginia including on some of the barrier islands.&nbsp; They have a large range of habitat.&nbsp; They are found in rivers, swamps, ponds, lakes, streams, freshwater, and brackish marshes.&nbsp; They are usually active from March through October but can be found any time of the year.<\/p>\n<p><p>They prefer dead but not rotting fish but they will also eat, crayfish, toads, frogs, terrestrial insects, muskrats, aquatic plants and algae.&nbsp; The adult snappers have one primary predator; MAN!!!<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<h2>(Chelydra serpentina serpentina)<\/h2>\n<p><\/br><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"204\" src=\"images\/stories\/wildlife\/st1.jpg\" alt=\"Eastern Snapping Turtle\" height=\"180\" style=\"float: left; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-right: 10px;\" \/>The Eastern Snapping Turtle has a flattened carapace (upper shell) with knobby keels that smooth out with age.&nbsp; They can reach up to 19 inches in length and weighing from 10-35 pounds.&nbsp; It has a large head, small plastron (lower shell), and a long saw-toothed tail on the upper side.&nbsp; The carapace is brown and the plastron is cream to light brown with various degrees of black in it.&nbsp; The skin on the head, neck and limbs is dark brown to black.&nbsp; The large head has a blunt protruding snout.&nbsp; The carapace is often covered with algae.&nbsp; Breeding season is from April to November.&nbsp; Incubation is from 80-90 days and laying of the eggs usually happens in June.&nbsp; The eggs are hard shelled, white and spherical (like ping-pong balls) in shape.&nbsp; They lay their eggs in a flask shaped hole that the females dig in a variety of soils.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"194\" src=\"images\/stories\/wildlife\/st2.jpg\" alt=\"Eastern Snapping Turtle\" height=\"162\" style=\"margin-top: 10px; float: right; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px;\" \/>The snapping turtle is found throughout the state of Virginia including on some of the barrier islands.&nbsp; They have a large range of habitat.&nbsp; They are found in rivers, swamps, ponds, lakes, streams, freshwater, and brackish marshes.&nbsp; They are usually active from March through October but can be found any time of the year.<\/p>\n<p><p>They prefer dead but not rotting fish but they will also eat, crayfish, toads, frogs, terrestrial insects, muskrats, aquatic plants and algae.&nbsp; The adult snappers have one primary predator; MAN!!!<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-19","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildlife.wordpresswarriors.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/19","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildlife.wordpresswarriors.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildlife.wordpresswarriors.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildlife.wordpresswarriors.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildlife.wordpresswarriors.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wildlife.wordpresswarriors.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/19\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildlife.wordpresswarriors.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}