A kayaker and his son encountered an unlikely danger while fishing in a stream in Long Island last weekend: an alligator snapping turtle.
The reptile is found primarily in a region spanning eastern Texas to the Florida Panhandle, said Roy Gross, chief of the Suffolk County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
The presence of the turtle in local waters is likely the result of someone bringing it to Long Island and dumping it into the stream, Gross said Wednesday, adding that it is illegal to own such a reptile.
The kayakers found the turtle in a stream in Smithtown, near a location where people walk into the water to launch canoes and kayaks.
The reptile's jaws are powerful enough to bite off the toes or part of a foot of anyone who ventures too close, Gross said.
Alligator snapping turtles are the largest freshwater turtles in North America and weigh about 175 pounds when fully grown.
