We recently had the privilege of seeing snapping turtles as they emerged from their nest where their mother had laid her eggs. I’ve previously uploaded pictures of snapping turtles which you can see at “Snapping Turtles in Haliburton County” and “Snapping Turtles”. This was a totally new experience for us. We even saw one of the hatchlings coming out of the hole.
Some time probably in May of this year, a female left our lake and crossed the road, went up a long driveway, and dug a hole to deposit her eggs. Apparently she may have laid 20-40 eggs and then covered them up so that the sun would warm the sand and incubate them. The temperature of the soil determines whether the turtles will be male or female.
Only about 1% make it to adulthood. Often the eggs and hatchlings are eaten by raccoons, skunks, other large turtles, great blue herons, large fish and other enemies.
As they had a road to cross, we helped some of them make it safely to the other side. This picture shows you how tiny they are. If this turtle survives, it will grow slowly, possibly even up to 20 kg, and may live about 100 years. It will take about 20 years for it to reach adulthood.
Every hatchling we saw was headed towards the lake. I thought it was interesting that they knew the direction to go.
It’s amazing to think that this little one might eventually be as big as the ones we have seen in our lake.
When I saw these two hatchlings in the picture below, it looked to me like one was encouraging the other to go into the water – that everything was okay.
It reminded me of how we can be nervous or afraid of what is coming in our lives. Psalm 56:3 is a good reminder to put our trust in God and rest in the knowledge that He is in control.
