Turtles and soft-shelled turtles form the order Tortoise. The biggest difference between the two is that the tortoise not only has a hard and textured shell, but also its head and limbs (mostly) can be completely retracted into the shell, while the tortoise's shell is soft and has a skirt, and its head and limbs can only be partially retracted into the shell.
The snapping turtle is a typical turtle with a hard shell. However, the snapping turtle has a characteristic that its head can't be completely retracted into the shell because its head is too thick.
Crocodile turtles in a broad sense are the general names of various turtles in the crocodile family. However, there are only two genera of Crocodiles. We often say that the snapping turtle has obvious protrusions on its shell, and only the snapping turtle has three rows of thorns. The representative species of snapping turtle is the big snapping turtle (also known as the real snapping turtle), so we usually refer to the big snapping turtle.
Giant snapping turtle is a kind of turtle unique to North America. They are mainly distributed in the southern waters of the United States. Although most of the snapping turtles we see are on land, in fact, in the primitive environment, they rarely go ashore except the females who lay eggs. Comparatively speaking, males go ashore more frequently than females.
As the largest freshwater turtle in North America, the average adult snapping turtle is about 70cm long and weighs 80kg. Up to now, the largest snapping turtle recorded accurately is 106 cm in length and 107 kg in weight. After being captured in the wild, it was sent to Chicago Zoo.
It is difficult to tell the sex of snapping turtles, especially in infancy, and there are almost no characteristics to distinguish them. Until the carapace grows to about 40 cm, we can judge their sex from the distance between their cloaca and turtle shell and the thickness of their tail, in which the male cloaca is far from the carapace and the tail is thicker.
Why can't snapping turtles be released if they don't keep them?
Crocodile turtles were introduced to China mainly to meet two needs: one is to cater to the needs of some pet climbers; The second is to cater to the needs of many foodies to eat "turtle". Especially the second point, in recent years, with the rise of short videos, some food bloggers will cook some "strange" ingredients in order to attract audiences. Crocodile turtles are one of them. Although it looks a little hard to eat, as a chinemys reevesii, the meat quality after washing is said to be good.
The introduction for the purpose of eating is not a big problem. After all, people buy it and cook it, but raising it for the purpose of climbing pets is different. This is one of the main sources of release. In addition, some people released the snapping turtle as a rare turtle, which made snapping turtles found in many wild waters in China since the beginning of the 2nd1century. But this discovery is not a good thing, but an ecological disaster. Why do you say that? We say from three aspects:
Number one: invincible. As a species introduced from North America, snapping turtle is an invasive species once it appears in the wild in China. In general, the ecological chain of a country or region is relatively stable, animals at all levels of the food chain have relatively fixed food, and invasive species are usually ignored, which will lead to the flood of crocodiles without natural enemies.
Secondly, even if some animals want to attack snapping turtles, there is nothing they can do. First of all, the snapping turtle's carapace has a hard thorn, and it is difficult for other animals to break its defense except large crocodiles. Moreover, although the heads of snapping turtles can't be completely retracted into their shells, their mouths are very big. Although this big mouth has no teeth, its upper and lower jaw edges have been keratinized and very hard, even comparable to teeth. In addition, the snapping turtle's mouth is open and closed.
Once an animal's head is stuck in the past and bitten by it, its nose can be bitten off. So in our country, no animal can deal with it except human beings.
Second: the nightmare of aquatic animals. Crocodile turtles are carnivorous turtles. They have been eating meat in the water since childhood. They can kill small fish, shrimp, big fish and even aquatic mammals. In America, adult crocodiles can even kill young crocodiles.
Moreover, snapping turtles grow very fast. With sufficient food, it only takes one year to grow from half a catty to about five catties. Such a rapid growth rate is the result of excessive demand for food, so once the snapping turtle is released into the wild water, it will be a nightmare for aquatic animals in this water body.
Third: super fertility. Crocodile turtle is one of the most fertile species in crocodile family. Adults can lay more than 100 eggs a year and have the habit of protecting eggs. They will stay on the shore to guard their eggs. Once an animal comes near, they will climb to the shore to drive away.