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

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.”

[RELATED: Oh SNAP: Here’s Why You Don’t Pet Snapping Turtles]

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:

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.”

[RELATED: Oh SNAP: Here’s Why You Don’t Pet Snapping Turtles]

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: