From our panoramic picture window on the coastline of Sconticut Neck in Fairhaven, we welcomed the avian parade of migratory birds along the Atlantic Flyway, arriving to begin the nesting egg-laying April ritual reproduction. However, the month of May will be the month when the reptilian Snapping Turtle will rise up from muddy bottoms of brackish river tributaries to trek overland to similarly lay eggs.
First, the female must meet the male on dry land to mate and fertilize her eggs. However, Mother Nature has already bestowed upon her a woman’s prerogative to change her mind. If she finds that reproductive atmospheric or environmental conditions are not exactly right for her eggs, she is blessed with the innate ability to store the male’s sperm in her reproductive organs until she feels her time is right.
Case in point, scientific research reports find how her eggs incubated at about 65 F degrees produce only females, 73 F degrees produce both males and females, and 75 F degrees only males. Once she feels comfortable in her heart, she must head overland for as far as a mile or more, as well as crossing a country road or two, in plain sight for onlookers. She may return to the same sandy hillside used last year.
In less than a single day, she may lay as many as 30 to 40 eggs, as illustrated, and use her tail to bury them in sand out of sight from predators. All too often they are found and dug up by hungry skunks, raccoons and crows. If her buried treasure trove has been dug up upon her return, she somehow knows not to use it again.
Once she has laid and hidden the eggs, she immediately takes off to return to the path she came on, to the very waters of her departure.
Her motherhood is finished, and her hatchlings left to fend for themselves. They will, in the fall, emerge from their leathery containers using a small egg tooth to break the shells. They will be about three-quarters of an inch long, with a cute little turtle-like impression and a face only a mother could love.
As their mother departed in one day, they, too, will take off as soon as they are free to go, tracing her path to head to the nearest direction of the safety of water. Once their shells harden, their chances to live a full life of some 10 years improve, but only 10 percent of eggs laid grow into maturity.
Egg-laying production is an ancient reptilian ritual, giving them the Latin classification of Chelydra serpentina, perhaps named after the evil serpent in the garden of Eden, mankind’s cross to bear.
The Snapping Turtle is among the oldest creatures on Earth, even before the Mesozoic age of dinosaurs. They probably were among the original forms of living things that crawled up on land from the primordial soup that produced life-like creatures in the ocean.
If you should come across a Snapper crossing a road, please do not waylay or disturb its reproductive intention. You will be witness to Mother Nature’s ancient renewal to ensure an unbroken chain of evolution for your own prodigy to read about and environmentally appreciate.
By George B. Emmons