As a child, I remember thinking that turtles could all pull their bodies inside of their shells for protection. Clearly that is not the case with this prehistoric-looking Snapping Turtle (Chelydra serpentina) that I spotted last week lounging on a fallen tree at Huntley Meadows Park in Alexandria, Virginia.
We kept little turtles as pets several times in my family as I was growing up and I remember the clear flat plastic habitat that we used that had a small plastic palm tree. As a product of the suburbs of Boston, I didn’t have a whole lot of experience with wildlife, though I was Boy Scout for a while.
To this day I am amazed by the size and apparent power of snapping turtles, which are pretty common in my favorite marshland park. Most of the time I see them moving slowly in the water and only occasionally do I see one sunning itself on a log as the smaller turtles regularly are wont to do—I imagine that it is quite a chore to haul that massive body out of the water.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
I’m both amazed and amused. My first reaction was to laugh and think, “What a healthy specimen.” It’s a great photo. I’ve not seen many turtles this spring, but those I have seen have been covered with duckweed or other vegetation. It’s nice to see one all spiffed up.
“Amazed and amused”–I like a reaction like that. I sort of take turtles for granted and don’t often spend time photographing them, but there was something about this turtle’s pose that grabbed my attention.
I’ve yet to see a snapping turtle in the wild. The subject of your photo is quite a chunky guy, isn’t he? Maybe he’s up and out of the water to show off his muscles.
Muscle Beach? I like it! 🙂
I remember having that exact same turtle habitat, or whatever it was called. I put it outside so the turtle could get some sun but a bird thought he’d make a nice snack and flew off with him. He wasn’t even as big as a half dollar.
I see a lot of snapping turtles out of the water but I’ve never seen one on a log.
I think we indeed had the same setup, Allen. Some of our snappers seem to like sunning themselves on logs, so it’s not that uncommon to see one out of the water, though I’ve never seem one climb up onto a log.
I had a few of those plastic habitats with the plastic palm tree! I used to feed the turtles little pieces of raw chop meat….wow you just brought back a memory I had totally forgotten 🙂
I think that many of us that grew up during a certain period of time had a shared experience with tiny turtles and similar plastic habitats.
WOW! Thats a big boy. His shell looks a bit snug…. I know how he feels. 🙂