Snippy the snapping turtle films Shenipsit Lake

24 pound snapper takes National Geographic's CritterCam for a spin in a Connecticut Lake.

For more information and updates on the project, go to:
http://hydrodictyon.eeb.uconn.edu/eebedia/index.php/Snapping_turtle_research_...

The clip is composed of five sequences:
1. The send off-- Snippy is carried to the shore by a student, snaps once, looks around and walks into the Snip. (1min)
2. Snippy encounters a school of large sunfish and bass as he pokes around in a mussel bed. (30 s)
3.Snippy walks past large snails, a pile of rocks, and surfaces for a breath as he looks at the fish from below. (1 min)
4. Snippy dives from the surface into a fish nursery. Dozens of small fish investigate him. (1min 30 s)
5. A sunfish hitchhikes a ride on the CritterCam as Snippy walks along. (30 s)

Snippy the snapping turtle is from Shenipsit Lake in Connecticut. He was outfitted with National Geographic Society's CRITTERCAM this summer by a collaborative team of researchers including ten high school students from Hartford. Snippy wore the camera for about two hours as he went for an underwater walk in the Snip. In that time he covered about a kilometer or twelve football fields. So on average, Snippy did the 100 yard dash in about ten minutes. In reality, he moved much faster than this, but he stopped to breathe 36 times-- which averages to one breath every 3.5 minutes. Snippy also paused to investigate some of the interesting creatures of the lake. He traveled through many freshwater mussel beds, and ran into several schools of large sunfish, bass, dace and even found a fish nursery with hundreds of tiny fish darting about. These fish were clearly familiar with Snippy and his ways as they all stayed just out of reach. One sunfish even hitched a ride on the pressure waves surrounding the
CRITTERCAM. Snippy marched on and in fact, delivered the camera to the property of one of the researchers. Now that's a team player!

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• Snapper
• snapping
• turtle
• Chelydra
• serpentina
• underwater
• National
• Geographic
• Society
• CRITTERCAM
• Our
• Piece
• of
• the
• Pie
• Riverfront
• Recapture
• Fish
• Bass
• Sunfish
• University
• Connecticut
• uconntv

[joshawes]

thats sweet!! did N Geo do this for some kind of research

[Jobediah]

The project was designed primarily as outreach. High school kids from Hartford CT set the traps, caught the turtles and got a lot of exposure to field research! It was a great success.

We are analyzing the data now (see links in sidebar) and trying to develop the project further.

[pimpborg]

lake murray

[Jobediah]

Shenipsit Lake, CT

AKA the Snip

[dickdog75]

very cool!

[AlyssaP1991]

i live right near there awsome!!!

[ExistBMX]

i want one of these to put on fish and stuff

[charlesparenteau]

very interesting tanks alot.

[Jokester1338]

That's so cool, I ove the random fish that wants to get on camera.

[pimpborg]

KK my bad it looked like where we camped