Snapping turtle, no question. Most likely it's a female, possibly looking for a good nesting site. Especially given the "disturbed earth", it's equally likely she found one. And yes, while they're there, they will defend their nesting sites, but baby snapping turtle are precocious, so the mother will wander off after laying so as to not give away the location of her eggs to nest predators.



Cool story for Mother's day, though, thanks.

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On the kinkometer, my kink measures as a sine wave.