When most people see a snapping turtle, they end up doing so when the turtle is on land. And this can seem a little strange since we all know that turtles are mostly aquatic creatures. So why don’t we see snapping turtles in the water just as often, can’t they swim? To find out the answer to this question I decided to do some research, here is what I found out.
Can snapping turtles swim? Yes, snapping turtles can swim. Actually snapping turtles are very good swimmers and they have the ability to spend a lot of time underwater.
From my personal experience, I would actually say that snapping turtles are some of the best swimmers that don’t live exclusively in water. So let’s cover some of the reasons why snapping turtles are such great swimmers.
Snapping Turtles Have Great Feet for Swimming
One of the reasons why snapping turtles are such great swimmers is their feet which are designed to be efficient on land as well as in the water.
When you see a snapping turtle on land their feet don’t seem like anything too special, and definitely, something that could make them great swimmers. They are kind of short and stubby, they actually look like something that would make it harder for the turtle to be able to swim. Take a look at this picture to see what I mean.
But when they get into the water their feet start to look a little different. Between their toes, most turtles have a membrane that makes it a lot easier for them to push water and as a result makes them better swimmers than most animals that don’t have this kind of webbing. Here is a picture of a snapping turtle while it’s swimming.
This small webbing is so efficient at swimming that we humans copied its design and use it when we have to swim long distances, or for long periods of time. And we did this with the scuba diving fins.
So even if they don’t seem as much at first glance, in reality, their feet are really efficient at swimming. And in certain cases they can be very efficient on land, actually snapping turtles are some of the fastest animals in the world, even if they are able to maintain that speed for less than a second. But this is a completely different subject that I covered in a different article, but if you want to know more about how fast are turtles, which are the fastest turtles in the world, which turtle is among the 10 fastest animals in the world, and which turtle is among the 10 slowest animals in the world you can read my article: How Fast or Slow Are Turtles? (with Videos and Statistics)
Now let’s continue looking at what makes snapping turtles such great swimmers.
Snapping Turtles Swim to Catch Their Food
Like most animals, turtles have to eat, but unlike a lot of animals snapping turtles have to catch their prey in water.
While they can also eat plants, they still need some meat in their diet in order to maintain proper health. So they have no choice but to catch fish.
While some snapping turtles (alligator snapping turtles) choose to wait for their prey at the bottom of the lake and catch them by surprise, most snapping turtles (common snapping turtles) choose to chase after their prey. And as we all know fish can be really fast when they are swimming, so the snapping turtles have no choice but to swim as fast as possible in order to be able to catch them.
Food is very important for every living animal, without it they can’t live a long and healthy life. So for snapping turtles, catching fish is not a matter of fun like when we fish, it’s about survival.
So snapping turtles will chase fish in the water almost every day, and as a result of doing this daily, they will start to get better and better at it, because they have to do it in order to survive.
Realistically speaking, we won’t see any snapping turtle swimming faster than a full-grown fish too soon, if ever. But snapping turtles don’t need to be faster than them, they just need to be fast enough to occasionally catch them.
Now let’s move to the next reason.
Snapping Turtles Spend Most of Their Life In or Underwater
Snapping turtles are able to live both on land and in water, but they choose to spend most of their lives or underwater. And in order to be able to spend that much time in the water, you need to be able to swim pretty well, because that is what you will be doing most of the time.
Here is a video showing what a snapping turtle is doing when it’s not looking for food:
Since snapping turtles end up swimming so much time they naturally start to get good at it.
Let me give you an example of something similar that we do. Reading, for example, since you are reading this article. We all know how to read and it’s something that we do naturally. Even when we walk on the street, if some huge words come upon a billboard we will read them instinctively. When we were born we didn’t have this reflex, we didn’t even know how to read. But after we learned how to do it, we started practicing it, and as time went by we started doing it automatically, without having to think about each letter like we did when we first learned. This is similar to how snapping turtles swim.
While they are not experts at it from the moment they are born, the fact that they have to do it daily makes it something natural for them.
Another thing that makes snapping turtles great at swimming is the fact that they are able to breathe underwater.
Snapping Turtles Are Able to Breath Underwater
There is something that most people don’t know about turtles, and that is the fact that most of them are able to breathe underwater.
Turtles are able to breathe underwater through a gill-like structure that is called a cloaca. The entire process is very simple but at the same time fascinating, and if you want to know more about how turtles are able to breathe underwater you can always look at my article: Do Turtles Have Gills? ( with Pictures and Videos )
Why You Mostly See Snapping Turtles on Land
As I said snapping turtles prefer to spend their time in the water, so they rarely leave the water unless they have to lay eggs. So if you see one out of the water that is probably the reason it got out.
The reason why you might end up seeing many snapping turtles in a small amount of time is that their mating season is rather short. It usually starts mid to late June and lasts 2, or sometimes 3 months. So in a rather short period of time, all-female snapping turtles will have to leave their natural habitat and look for a safe place on the land to lay their eggs. And as a result, a lot of them will be wandering around until they find a good place.
While snapping turtles are in the water they are usually at the bottom of the lake, where they have access to more fish, so they are not always easy to spot in a lake, or any kind of water body.
Related Questions
Are snapping turtles dangerous? Snapping turtles can be dangerous, the interesting thing about this is that they tend to be more aggressive than other turtles, but they do it because they are more defenseless compared to other turtles. So they have to rely on their bite as an intimidation method. If you want to know more about the bite of a snapping turtle, and why they are defenseless compared to other turtles you can always check out my article: Are Snapping Turtles Dangerous? (with Bite Facts and Videos)
How long can a snapping turtle live? In general, they live between 50 and 70 years. The age that they reach generally depends on how harsh the habitat that they live in is.
Do turtles shells heal? Turtle shells can heal minor injuries, but if the shell is completely cracked, the turtle will not be able to heal its shell.
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