The old turtle scraped at the sand with her naily toes as the kids gathered in a wide circle around her. Sometimes I get questions about dinosaurs on field trips, but they don’t fit into the Museum’s focus on northern Wisconsin species. Today, instead, the first- and second-graders got a close-up look at a creature who has existed on Earth for over 40 million years, with direct ancestors much older than dinosaurs.
Quietly and respectfully, the students observed as the mother slowly finished excavating a depression for her precious cargo at the edge of the boat ramp’s asphalt. We commented on her smooth, algae-covered shell and enormous claws on her webbed feet. Once, I caught a glimpse between her hind leg and knobby tail of a smooth, white eggshell sliding into the nest.
The size and age of a female snapper, and the number of eggs she lays each year, are all connected. A mother turtle will only lay a clutch of eggs equal to about seven percent of her body mass each year, and some years not at all. This helps make sure she’ll have enough energy to survive the winter, and translates into somewhere between 11 and 87 eggs, with an average of 34 eggs per clutch in northern populations.
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