Snapping Turtles (Five Photographs)

To view more of my photography please click on www.rakmilphotography.com

Not the cutest things in nature, rather prehistoric. They live for a very long time. The weeds and moss that accumulate on their shells act as camouflage, and they use the cover of lily pads to stalk their prey. In the summer it’s great to see them swim up for the sun. Over the winter you have to worry about their well-being if the water is too low, and in the spring if there are fast freezes it can kill them. They lay their eggs in the late summer, digging holes in the earth and covering over the eggs (a delicacy for many mammals). Most of the eggs in fact do not survive and those turtles that hatch have a hazardous journey to the water, made a little easier this year by the lowering of the sidewalks outside our nature reserve. There is some debate over the power of their jaws and people dangling their kids over the water to see the big turtles should be warned it’s a bad idea.