By DIRK J. STEVENSON

Georgia’s Little River is home to some big turtles. Some very big turtles.

So is the Withlacoochee, the Alapaha and those other lazy, dark-water south Georgia rivers that feed the Suwannee River.

Hoop-trap surveys last month on the Little and the Withlacoochee netted some impressive Suwannee alligator snapping turtles. Captures included a 44-pound female and males of 58 and 80 pounds. A toddler gator snapper – 2.5 pounds and 6 inches long at about 6 years old – was also caught and released.

Separate trapping on main river channels landed another five alligator snapping turtles, several other turtle species and even a few large alligators. The gator snappers ranged from 5.5 to 55 pounds.

In both trapping efforts, done respectively by Altamaha Environmental Consulting and The Orianne Society, the juveniles indicate reproduction in recent years, a promising sign for these populations.

The just-started surveys are part of a two-year project exploring the status and distribution of Suwannee alligator snapping turtles, Macrochelys suwanniensis. This species found in the Suwannee River drainage is one of two gator snappers. Georgia is also home to Macrochelys temminckii in the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee Flint River basin (“Big Turtle Year Turns to Alapaha,” Oct. 7).

Alligator snapping turtles are petitioned for Endangered Species Act listing. For the Georgia surveys, funded by DNR through a federal grant, traps are set at targeted sites for two consecutive nights. Turtles caught are marked and tagged. Data is recorded on them and the habitat. The same sites will be trapped again next year.

Dirk J. Stevenson is a naturalist and owner of Altamaha Environmental Consulting. He also writes the Natural Georgia column in the Savannah Morning News, including the latest “Sizing up giant rattlers.”

DID YOU KNOW

Alligator snappers are:

• North America’s largest freshwater turtles, weighing as much as 200 pounds.
• The only turtles with an oral predatory lure (video).
• A conservation priority in Georgia’s State Wildlife Action, a comprehensive strategy for conserving the native wildlife and natural habitats statewide.