September 15, 2022 at 11:42 a.m.
Giant snapping turtle found in Sugar Camp causes social media stir
Giant snapping turtle found in Sugar Camp causes social media stir
"You know you guys have a big snapping turtle that washed up on your beach?" Anderson said one of them men asked her. "We went to look, and it was big. My husband put it on the back of his ATV."
At the time he estimated the turtle weighed approximately 25-30 pounds. The Andersons were not sure how long the turtle had been dead, but it was clear some time had passed as the animal was bloated.
"We didn't think to call the DNR or find out how old it might be," Anderson said. "We really wanted to get the stench off of our beach," she said. She laughed and said if something like that were to ever happen again, she and her husband would think twice about simply putting the animal back into the lake. She said neither of them realized it would "blow up" like it did on social media.
"I have never heard of anyone saying they saw a turtle of that size on the lake," Anderson said. She also admitted she was happy she had never seen it while she was swimming. She wondered about the turtle's life and if it was a resident of her lake specifically or if it utilized the whole chain of lakes as its home.
"I haven't seen anything like this the whole time I've lived on the lake," she said. "We've had dead fish and things pushed up onto our beach, but never anything like this!"
A Reddit post about the turtle found a lot of traction and was upvoted well over 20,000 times. Anderson's family, too, had their social media posts see a great response.
"I got a lesson in how quickly things can spread on social media," she said of the response. Newsweek called Anderson after seeing the Reddit thread and spoke with her about the unique and lucky find.
"One thing I want to make sure people understand is that we did not hurt this turtle in any way. It had been dead quite a while before it washed up on our beach," she stressed.
Snapping turtles are the largest turtles in Wisconsin. As they grow and age, they have no natural predators. They do succumb to some human-imposed issues, however, such as getting hit by cars or snagged by fishermen. They can consume almost any animal they are able to catch, making them a top predator in some food webs.
Snapping turtles can live up to 30 years in the wild and have been noted to live even longer in captivity.
Beckie Gaskill may be reached via email at [email protected].
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