The Search for the Secretive Snapper: Status of the Alligator Snapping Turtle in Mississippi
Tuesday, September 4, 2018
Time: Noon - 1 p.m.
Location: MDWFP's Mississippi Museum of Natural Science
County: Hinds
For more information please contact the Visitor Information Specialist at 601-576-6000 or by email at info@mmns.state.ms.us
SPEAKER: Luke S. Pearson, Ph.D. Student, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Southern Mississippi
The alligator snapping turtle (Macrochelys temminckii) is the largest freshwater turtle in North America, weighing up to 250 pounds. From the 1960's to the 1980's, alligator snapping turtles were commercially harvested for the turtle soup industry, causing significant population declines throughout their range.
These historical threats, coupled with current threats like commercial fishing, trotlines, and general animosity towards this species, has led to the implementation of a species status assessment by the US Fish and Wildlife Service to determine if federal protection is warranted under the Endangered Species Act.
Within the heart of the alligator snapping turtle's range, Mississippi has a paucity of records for alligator snapping turtles. To fill this knowledge void, we are systematically trapping all major river drainages (Pascagoula, Pearl, Big Black, Yazoo, and Tombigbee) in the state to determine distribution and population abundance to more accurately assess the state and federal conservation status of the alligator snapping turtle.
