Here is an informative article, with citations, on snapping
turtles.
http://www.tortoisetrust.org/articles/snappers.htm
Submitted
by Patsy Eldridge
An excerpt below discusses snapping turtle behavior. It’s hard
to tell with certainly the length of the carapace on the turtles
in the photos, but they sure are large and therefore those
turtles are quite old, perhaps over 50 years!
Aggression and Danger to humans:
Snapping
turtles are not as aggressive as commonly believed. They will
defend themselves if cornered and cut off from the water by
striking out with their head, which can reach almost all the way
back along the shell. In the water snapping turtles will always
leave instead of attack. Snappers do not attack people in the
water. Over the course of my research I have handled over 50
different wild snapping turtles ranging up to 16 inches in size
and have never been bitten. Because of their position in the
food chain snapping turtles are not afraid, but they are also
not aggressive. An annoyed snapping turtle will back into a
corner and lunge at you, stopping about an inch short of you. If
you do not move away, it will lunge at you with open jaws but
close them a fraction of an inch before it touches you and just
bump you. Only if! you violate a very tight zone around a
snapping turtles head with a small object (something it judges
it could get its jaws around) while the turtle is annoyed it
will sometimes strike, bite, and sometimes hold on. This can of
course also happen if a snapping turtle is injured. If a
snapping turtle does not feel threatened it will in most cases
tolerate extensive handling including having its mouth and nose
touched. Even if a turtle bites it has no intention of hurting
you. Snapping turtles often play bite their conspecifics without
injuring them. Our delicate skin just gets injured much more
quickly. Do not attempt to remove the turtle if for some reason
it has bitten and held on. It will let go by itself after a
short wile if you leave it in the water. Killing a snapping
turtle will cause significantly more injury to you since the
jaws will contract after death even more. But again, snapping
turtles in the wild do not bite people. Many individuals are
very curious and will approach swimmers or boats very closely.
They examine things by touching them with their nose, so a very
curious snapper might bump a swimmer carefully. Their curiosity
for boats often seems to cause injuries by the propellers, since
especially turtles in lakes with high boat traffic frequently
have scarred backs. There is absolutely no truth to he rumor
that snapping turtles will drag swimmers under. They do not even
hunt in water deeper than we can stand up in. Most of the
snapping turtles I have ever worked with were very curious and
friendly individuals. Others appeared to be simply bored with my
presence and hurried to move off.
