When the Ak-Sar-Ben Aquarium at Schramm Park State Recreation Area near Greta, Nebraska, closed for renovations in May 2017, its 89-pound snapping turtle needed a temporary home.
For a little more than a year, he’s found it at the herpetology lab at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, run by Dennis Ferraro, professor at the School of Natural Resources. The turtle spends his days relaxing in a large teal water holding tank, where he’s fed fish and deer meat — not that’s he’s picky. In the wild, he’d eat anything alive or dead he could catch and plants if he couldn’t.
When his tank is cleaned, he turns lively, investigating his surroundings until his tank refills enough to cover him and he turns docile again.
“Unless he’s hungry, he’s pretty chill,” Ferraro said.
The turtle, about 85 years old by Ferraro’s estimate, became one of 12 exhibits at Ak-Sar-Ben Aquarium after a team of scientists with the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission caught him while conducting research. At that point, he joined other fish, reptile and amphibians exhibits in at the park’s terrarium and outdoor classroom exhibits. Among them are a prehistoric paddlefish, behemoth blue catfish, rainbow trout, and other species found in Nebraska’s ponds, lakes and streams.
The aquarium renovations are scheduled to be completed by fall of this year and include a larger habitat space for the massive snapping turtle.
Snapping turtles are found across the entire state of Nebraska and make their home in permanent bodies of water. They are known for their large head; hooked, powerful jaws; and highly flexible neck. They have saw tooth-like spikes on the sides and back of their upper shell. At their largest, their upper shell can be nearly 20 inches long.
“He’s easily over 2-foot round,” Ferraro said about this snapping turtle. “The spikes on his shell are very worn down, almost round, and his tomia — it’s not a beak — is very worn down, too.”
Ferraro suspects he’s one of the largest snapping turtles to have been caught and likely holds the record for largest snapping turtle in captivity (they tend to weight more than those found in the wild).
“If anyone has caught and verified measurements of a snapping turtle bigger than this, we want to know,” he said. Anyone with the potential winner can reach Ferraro here.
People across the state can, with a Nebraska fishing permit, catch, kill and eat snapping turtles. For more on those regulations, click here.
As for this one, he’s safe, clean, happy and healthy in his tank, awaiting his eventual new aquarium at Schramm Park.
Writer: Shawna Richter-Ryerson, Natural Resources