October 16th, 2014

I blogged about a baby snapping turtle here in the spring. Today a grade 9 class from Bluevale Collegiate caught a smaller one in our pond. This guy would fit back in a snapping turtle egg, no problem.

I told the class that this baby would hopefully survive the winter in the mud under the ice. When the students asked how they breathe under water, the answer is – they don’t! Snapping turtles can go four months or more without breathing during the winter. If the winter lasts longer than normal, snappers can absorb some oxygen out of the water through membranes in their mouth.

Another student claimed that turtles breathe out of their butts. Some turtles can attain oxygen through their cloacas (opening at the base of the tail where pee, poop and eggs come out), but I didn’t think this was true for snapping turtles. However, I just found a research paper online that said snapping turtles get about 4% of their oxygen this way. There you go.

Anyway, very few snapping turtles survive to adulthood. Hopefully little Snappy here makes it.