Angler Learns the Hard Way—Don’t Mess With Snapping Turtles

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A fisherman is probably still recovering after a snapping turtle nearly bit off his nose in the blink of an eye. Mike Loughran is an angler, a photographer, and a Good Samaritan who likes to help wildlife. Even though he knew the damage snapping turtles could do, he was still almost a victim of this reptile’s lightning-fast bite strike. He posted a video of the incident on his Instagram page to show others exactly why you don’t mess with snapping turtles.

“This was almost a really bad BITE!” Loughran wrote in an Instagram post sharing the video. “Look how close this guy got to my face! [. . .] I was trying to demonstrate how most of the time when you look at them head on they will slowly extend out but this guy had no intentions of moving slow.”

Loughran admits this content-creation mishap was almost a trip to the emergency room, and he was very lucky. His followers wanted to see the slow-motion version, so he posted that as well, saying that a common snapping turtle’s bite speed can be up to 174 miles per hour.

“This includes the lunging and jaw snapping action, which occurs in a remarkably short time of 4-8 milliseconds!!” Loughran adds.

Here’s why you don’t mess with snapping turtles:

And here’s the slow-motion version:

Header stock image by Michael-Tatman/Getty Images

Source: https://outdoors.com/angler-learns-the-hard-way-dont-mess-with-snapping-turtles/