Alligator Snapping Turtle Foundation

We are the Alligator Snapping Turtle Foundation. We are a non-profit organization located in LaPlace, Louisiana (about 25 miles west of New Orleans). Our mission is to re-populate the threatened Alligator Snapping Turtle (Macrochelys temminckii) in Southeast Louisiana. Take a look around, we will be adding content regularly.

After much procrastination, the forum is ready for your use. Anyone can view it, but you have to register to be able to post. It's easy, all you need is a valid email.

Sorry for being away so long, but we think this forum will really breath new life into the site and the foundation as well.

So, go sign up, and post questions, comments, and even pictures you may have. Click here, or the Forum link on the menu at the left to get started.

I am finding myself with less and less time to keep the site up-to-date and create content. First off, I want to apologize for not responding to all your emails, I am making plans to improve this situation right now. So, stay with us, we'll be introducing something new to the site soon, a discussion board (also known as a forum). This will allow more of our members to directly contribute content to the site without me having to type the code. Visitors can view the content, or register and post questions, comments, or content. Yall are gonna love it.

When the new section, tentatively named 'Forums,' is ready you'll see a link to iton our navigation menu on the left side of most pages on our site.

On the last update we told you about the pond being pumped. A lot has happened since then; we'll be erecting the fence this coming weekend, weather permitting. We expect to be doing alot of our own hard labor over the next weekends to get the fence up and the pond secure. Hopefully, we'll be able to release some of our turtles into the pond a week or two after that.


We also wanted to make a special announcement that Foundation founder Ben Naquin's daughter, Kayley Naquin, recently won first place at her school Science Fair with her project on Alligator Snappers that questions, "Should the Alligator Snapping Turtle be classified as an endangered species?" She then went on to win 1st place at John L. Ory, 2nd place at Garyville Magnet, 4th place in the Regional Science Fair at Nicholls State University, and she advanced to the Louisiana state science fair finals. We'll let you know how she does; in the meantime, check out some pics of Kayley working on her project.

Now that the Katrina is somewhat off our minds, we can update you on all that happened before. We pumped the pond, again, on August 23rd. As you may recall we had pumped the pond previously, but rain filled it back up while we were navigating red tape to get excavation equipment to the site. Allen and Mike did all the dirty work, as you can see in this update's pics. The whole job took less than 8 hours; we were pleasantly surprised. Special thanks to Lasseigne's Rentals of Reserve, Louisiana for donating the use of the pumping equipment. And great work Allen and Mike!

In the next -- very soon to come -- update we'll report on the excavation with new pics.

Most of the AST Foundation members, living about 30 miles west of New Orleans, rode out the storm in their homes. And we're all safe, as well as our homes and property. The turtles are well, and our newly deepened pond at Cajun Pride Swamp Tours appears to have weathered the storm just fine. Our main concern was that excavated dirt (mud) from the pond bed did not end up back in the pond. This didn't happen, and we are thankful. Another larger update will be posted VERY soon with pics of the (re)pumping and excavation of the pond.

So, in the meantime, how about some original pics of the devastation? Here's some originals, taken by our buddy Ryan, at the now (in)famous 17th Street Canal levee breech and surrounding area. Thanks for the pics, Ryan.

The pond has been pumped, and as we expected, it's just about full again. We believe this is due to runoff and the high water table in Southeast Louisiana. It took no more than 4 hours to empty the pond. So, the excavation crew will be providing pumps to remove any excess water at the time of the dig. We are currently going through the paperwork allow us to excavate, and as soon as that's done, we can dig.

And if you look to your left you'll see a satellite image (circa 1999) of the site with the pond circled in red. Click the image for a larger view. Here's an annotated hi-res image of the same site. Beware the hi-res image is large (260kb) as far as images go, so if you have dial-up it may take longer than a normal pic to download -- cable/DSL users, no worries.

See our full proposal for more info about this project, or if you would like to help.

We are making real headway on our Pond Project. Lasseigne's Rentals, Inc. of Reserve has donated the use of some pumps to remove the water from the pond in advance of excavation. Pumping should begin in the next few days and then, we will have machines come in and dig the pond a bit bigger. After that we concentrate on erecting a proper fence. We'll be stocking this pond before you know it!

Here are some additional views of the pond area: Pic206 Pic209 Pic212

See our full proposal for more info about this project, or if you would like to help.

This section is devoted to what we feel are the most commonly asked questions about Alligator Snappers. If you have a question or think we missed something drop us an email here

Q: Is it Macroclemys temminckii or Macrochelys temminckii?
A: According to the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS), the currently accepted name is Macrochelys temminckii. Some time ago (we're not sure how long ago), Macroclemys temminckii, was the accepted scientific name. Many internet sources still refer to the species this way.

Q: Is the Alligator Snapping Turtle on the endangered species list?
A: No, not according to the U.S. Wildlife & Fisheries Service. But, over the past several decades it's numbers have been decreasing. Once upon a time, a casual sportsman could catch an Alligator Snapper in an afternoon. Now, due to unregulated commercial harvesting and habitat loss, they are an uncommon take. Louisiana only just recently, in November of 2004, passed a law banning the commercial trade of the turtles. It was the last of the states to do so.

Q: How long do they live?
A: In captivity, they have been known to live up to 70 years. Their life span in the wild is not known.

Q: How big do they get?
A: The largest ones can get to about 30 inches. The females are much smaller than the males. In captivity they've been known to grow to 200 pounds or so, but in the wild they tend to not be quite as well fed.

Q: What do they eat?
A: Young loggerheads are generally more carnivorous than adults who are not picky and will eat just about anything offered to them. Ours have dined on rats, chickens, acorns, water hyacinth, and the occasional amphiuma.

Q: How many eggs do they produce?
A: They lay eggs every 3 years or so. On average a female will produce two or three dozen eggs per clutch. Mind you, some will lay more; some will lay less.