Snapping Turtle on the New Moon

My girlfriend found a snapping turtle in Minnesota at the last full moon; that is pretty normal. The females usually lay their eggs during the full moon in June. They must prefer the cover of darkness, but need the light of the moon to navigate, I don't know. I was out on a walk this evening when I was surprised to stumble upon a female digging a hole for eggs tonight, almost precisely a new moon:





Not only that, but she was out before dark. Maybe this is her first time, or maybe she mated late, or maybe the ground wasn't right two weeks ago. The latter doesn't seem right, though. I found traces of another nest that had been laid a while back.

The usual procedure is that a female will come up ten or twenty feet from the water, bloated with water, and urinates on the site she chooses to lay her eggs. She then digs with her hind feet:



After that, she'll lay her eggs and pack the dirt down hard on top again. Only the strongest of the young ones even manage to escape the hole; they wait for a good rain and hope to dig their way to the surface. If they're lucky, the ground will cave in and give them an exit. Such a cave-in is also the best chance we have of locating and 'rescuing' the little ones. One year, we dug almost 20 of them out of a hole. They're about the size of a quarter and surprisingly cute. We used to raise a couple of them on turtle food when we were kids, but we never kept one bigger than the size of a fist or so. They get pretty vicious, even if unintentionally.

Apparently this female tonight wasn't too enthusiastic about finishing tonight, though, because when I stopped by again on my way back from the walk, she'd left the hole she'd started and headed back toward the water:



She wasn't agressive at any point in this; maybe they act a little differently when they're out to lay eggs.

Some neighbors of ours caught and cooked one a few years back, so I can say that I've eaten snapping turtle meat. It's pretty terrible and tastes like mud. I could give details about how they killed it, but for once I'll spare you the details. Suffice it to say, there is a reason these critters have survived since the time of the dinosaurs.