Category

Alligator Snapping Turtle

The largest freshwater turtle in the western hemisphere, the alligator snapping turtle has suffered from poaching for meat, skulls, shells, and the pet trade, as well as impacts from bycatch, hydrologic changes, and pollution, including heavy metals and PCBs. Recent bans on harvest and trade, in addition to the discovery of populations in urban Texas streams, have been encouraging.

Interviews

Narrator: Carl FranklinTitle: Wild HarvestDuration: 00:03:04Date: August 31, 2023Carl Franklin is the founder and president of the non-profit, Texas Turtles, and a long-time student and friend of the alligator snapping turtle. Here, he talks about the effort in Texas to shut down the commercial harvest of wild snappers, as well as other freshwater turtles.Narrator: Eric MunscherTitle: Downtown HoustonDuration: 00:02:54Date: September 18, 2023Eric Munscher, a biologist with the environmental consulting firm SWCA, has studied a variety of freshwater turtles over the past twenty years. Here he tells about his surprise at finding breeding populations of the rare alligator snapping turtle in Buffalo Bayou, a major flood channel wending its way through highly developed sections of HoustonNarrator: Chris SchalkTitle: Long LivesDuration: 00:00:40Date: September 25, 2023The alligator snapping turtle is a very long-lived creature. Individuals in captivity have lived to 70 years. The turtle's longevity raises lots of challenges for understanding their full life history, the sustainability of their populations, and what sort of conservation risks they may face, since their life spans dwarf the active careers of most researchers and the duration of their studies.