Place and Time

I spotted this turtle in my backyard yesterday. My friend said it was a "Snapper." We ran to get our cameras and the large reptile posed for us. After a little while he crawled to the vernal pool next to my house to fetch himself a good meal.

I had to research the Snapping turtle and this is what I found on wikipedia.

In Politics

The Common snapper, known commonly and in folklore as the "Ograbme" was the central feature of a famous American political cartoon. Published in 1808 in protest at the Jefferson Embargo Act of 1807, the cartoon depicted a snapping turtle, jaws locked fiercely to an American trader who was attempting to carry a barrel of goods onto a British ship. The trader was seen whimsically uttering the words "Oh! this cursed Ograbme" ("embargo" spelled backwards). This piece is widely considered a pioneering work within the genre of the modern political cartoon.

 The year 2006 saw the snapping turtle declared the state reptile of New York by a sweeping vote of the New York Legislature and after being popularly chosen by the state's public elementary school children.