photos courtesy of Boyd Loving’s Facebook page
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Hawthorne NJ, An injured snapping turtle slowed traffic on Route 208 southbound near Goffle Road in Hawthorne on Sunday morning, 06/16. Hawthorne Police wisely established a safety zone until the injured turtle could be safely removed from the roadway by Tyco Animal Control Services.
The common snapping turtle is noted for its combative disposition when out of the water with its powerful beak-like jaws, and highly mobile head and neck (hence the specific name serpentina, meaning “snake-like”). In water, they are likely to flee and hide themselves underwater in sediment. Snapping turtles have a life-history strategy characterized by high and variable mortality of embryos and hatchlings, delayed sexual maturity, extended adult longevity, and iteroparity (repeated reproductive events) with low reproductive success per reproductive event. Females, and presumably also males, in more northern populations mature later (at 15–20 years) and at a larger size than in more southern populations (about 12 years). Lifespan in the wild is poorly known, but long-term mark-recapture data from Algonquin Park in Ontario, Canada, suggest a maximum age over 100 years.
