‘Aggressive’ 49-pound snapping turtle found in Virginia homeowner’s yard

A homeowner in suburban Virginia found a 48.6-pound common snapping turtle in his yard and feared the gargantuan reptile had been hit by a car, according to a Facebook post by the Richmond Wildlife Center.

The turtle proved “too aggressive to examine in the field,” so the creature was taken to the center where workers could more safely assess him for injuries, according to the center.

“Only finding a very old and healed carapace fracture we determined that he was completely healthy and was most likely only basking in the sun after the effects of” Tropical Storm Michael, the nonprofit center posted.

The grumpy turtle was the largest the center had examined in five years, according to its post.

The center said in its post that the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries gave it permission to return the turtle to a pond near where it was found “and let him continue to bask in the sun.“

Such turtles usually stick to the water, Fox News reported in a story about the mean turtle. The network cited the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory at the University of Georgia as its source for saying the turtles much prefer water.

The laboratory adds in its online profile of the common snapping turtle that the omnivores occasionally “may move long distances over land and many die attempting to cross roads.”

The turtles are “generally docile in water,” according to the lab’s online profile of the turtle. On land, however, the turtles “will strike viciously if captured or cornered ...” according to the laboratory.

This story was originally published October 18, 2018 at 8:24 AM.