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Message: [QUOTE="JBtheExplorer, post: 229174, member: 5437"] First of all, while only picking up two in my life, I've been around many, many more (I'm talking common snappers, not alligator snappers), and I know many people that deal with them on a daily basis during their herping trips. I am very experienced with their attitudes and their behavior. While some will spin around with you, its hit and miss. Some do, some don't. More often with younger ones. The one in the video is a zoo animal, so it is used to human contact, but the point of the video is to teach you where to pick them up. Snappers are aggressive, no doubt about that, and lightning fast. That's why you pick it up from the rear and say away from its mouth at all times. Its claws can do damage as well. Picking up a Snapper is a dangerous thing, but if done right, its completely safe. Leaving one on a road to cross by itself is always an option, but keeping in mind that our reptile and amphibian population has drastically decreased not only for loss of habitat but because so many of them get hit by cars. During egg laying season, I see turtles of all types laying dead on the roads. Turtles that could've been beneficial to the local population. A "stinky old snapping turtle" is a living thing with as much meaning as you or any human being. We are all here living our lives sharing this planet. I understand you may not see that way, because you only see it as a food source, but it just isn't so. That turtle's life is just as important, likely more important than that of humans, but pulling over to save one is safer than driving the car you were in when spotting it. As for relocation, you should never relocate an animal more than 5 miles away unless there is no other option. Putting an animal in an unfamiliar place could be the end of its life. The Department of Natural Resources would frown on that. [/QUOTE]

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