My wife and I were out boating on Saturday and we saw a huge alligator snapper turtle swimming on the surface of the lake.

I idled up to it and it didn't take off. It actually let me get some very good photos and a lo-res video to boot. I'm sure big wild alligator snappers like this are very seldom seen so pics and video like these are really pretty rare. We watched it for about 10 minutes before it finally dove beneath the surface.

I'd estimate it to have been 38"-46" long from snout to tail and probably about 80-100 lbs.

You can see the pics and video here:

The Bull Shoals Lake Monster

I found these web pages while learning more about them:

Turtle Folklore

The Turtle Man (I've never met him, but this guy lives just a few miles from us)

Bill

Wow Bill, those are some shots. I detect a certain, "Yeah, so whaddya gon do abouddit?" vibe from the big boy.

Cheers,

Rick

Neat! That's one seriously big 'n ugly turtle!

Several years ago one of these was found living in the sewers here in Sydney. Newspaper articles claimed that it was quite old and had been living in the sewers for decades. Sure was big and ugly when they caught the thing.

Cheers,
Michael.

Amazing animal. Nice shots.

Nice sized turtle!

I don't know how rare they are though. At least when I lived in Ohio they weren't too rare. I re-located or disposed of tons of Alligator snappers when I was a teenager. A lot of them got pretty huge too, one was so big it took me and a friend just to lift it into the van.
They liked to travel between the ponds, swamps, and creeks, and as most people and there kids swam in there ponds, those behemoths weren't all that welcome.

I sent the link to the photos and video to the "Turtleman" linked above and he wrote back with some great info.

He confirmed that seeing one that big was rare and even seeing small alligator snappers is pretty rare. He said it was "Big" but there are much bigger snappers in the lake. Some since the mid-1950's, before the dam was built. He said the turtle was a male, and that he could tell by the tail and shape of the shell, and that females don't get that big.

Now I can add "Huge People Eating Alligator Snappers" to my list of why tourists shouldn't come to Bull Shoals Lake with their big ego "Power Boats"

Bill